Dragon Isle Boxed Set, Books 4-6: Lost to the Dragon, Beware of Dragons, and Catching the Dragon

by Stern, Sophie

  Earlier, she would have laughed. Now she just needed to think.

  “I think I should get to work,” she stuck out her bottom lip in a fake pout. “I don’t want to piss off Emerson anymore.” She hoped Miles couldn’t see through her bullshit. It wasn’t a lie. Not exactly. Only she didn’t really need to rush off to work and she certainly didn’t care if she pissed off Emerson.

  He was a cranky old dragon no matter what anyone said or did, unless that someone was Janae. Penny had long ago learned how to handle him to keep him calm and appeased, but that didn’t matter when she wanted something badly enough. She’d risk Emerson’s wrath if it meant getting what she wanted.

  “Okay,” Miles cocked his head, stroked her cheek. She leaned into his touch, not wanting it to end. Dammit, maybe she was being really stupid, but his touch was so great.

  And she missed him.

  No matter what anyone said, no matter what she said, she had missed Miles.

  And she didn’t want to lose him again.

  She kissed him goodbye and when she left, she hoped it wasn’t for the last time.

  11

  Miles stopped by the office at the end of the day, just as Emerson was leaving. Emerson closed the door behind himself and motioned for Miles to follow him to the end of the small parking lot. There were very few cars on Dragon Isle, but Emerson had insisted on having a proper parking lot for his building. This way people had plenty of room to shift if they wanted to. There were also an assortment of bikes in the lot because many of the shifters preferred to get around in their human forms.

  “I’m guessing that whatever you’re about to say, you don’t want a certain dragon shifter female to hear you.” Miles said when they were at the edge of the lot.

  “Good guess,” Emerson shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looked around. He’d been a fighter long ago and his body was still muscular and strong. Of course, some of that came from being a dragonman. Miles thought it must be nice to be so naturally thick and big. He had to spend all of his free time in the gym just to look not-scrawny. Forget about extra muscle. He had bulked up a little bit in the Army, but not much. Not as much as he wanted to.

  “What’s on your mind, Emerson?” Miles asked. He wasn’t afraid of Emerson. Should he be? Probably. The dude was one scary badass. He’d been chosen as the leader of a dragon clan, after all, and you had to be fierce for that. Miles hadn’t been around when Emerson became the leader, but he had heard all about it. Emerson had been fierce and might: everything the clan needed in a leader, a protector.

  Still, despite a brief feeling of insecurity, Miles wanted Penelope. He didn’t consider himself to be an “alpha male.” He wasn’t the type of guy who went crazy with jealousy when his girl talked to another guy or who had to be in control at all times. He only liked to be in control during sex.

  Around Emerson, Miles had to stand his ground. He needed to let him know he wasn’t going anywhere. He needed to show Emerson he wasn’t going to hurt Penelope. He never would. The dragon was used to looking out for members of his own clan. He wouldn’t tolerate putting up with someone who couldn’t be strong. He wouldn’t put up with having a weak human around, especially a male.

  Emerson had to protect the dragons of the island. That included Penelope. So this was it, Miles reckoned. This was the part where Emerson told him once again to get lost, only with more force. Penelope wasn’t in the room, so she’d never know exactly what was said.

  “I think you know exactly what’s on my mind.” Emerson looked up at Miles, but when their eys met, Emerson didn’t look like a big brother. He didn’t look like a clan leader. He didn’t even look like an overbearing boss.

  He looked tired.

  He had bags under his eyes and his fierce look was completely forced.

  Penelope had mentioned that Emerson had a new baby, but until this moment, Miles hadn’t realized just how exhausted he really looked.

  “Have you been sleeping okay?” Miles blurted out without thinking. Emerson didn’t seem to notice how weird the question was, given the topic of conversation.

  “Not really. Weston is teething and Janae is still nursing. They’re both up all night which means I’m up all night.” He yawned: a big, dragonshifter yawn. Miles tried not to imagine Emerson shifting and taking a big, huge bite of him. He knew shifters didn’t really eat humans, but he had seen way too many movies as a kid. “Let me tell you something. Free advice, here. Trying to have a relationship is hard, but trying with a baby? Even tougher.” He sighed. “Between chasing after Penelope and trying to make sure she doesn’t get into trouble, keeping Janae happy, grocery shopping, buying diapers, changing diapers, throwing out diapers, and running the clan, I can’t remember what it feels like to just be able to spend time with my mate. It doesn’t even have to be anything special. I’d be happy to just watch a damn movie together.”

  “Why don’t Penelope and I come over this weekend?”

  “Excuse me?” Emerson looked surprised.

  “Why don’t we come over and watch Weston for you? You and Janae could probably use some time to yourselves. I know you went to The Dungeon together, but I’m guessing your girl would love a break from being a mom, even just for a few hours.”

  “No offense, Miles, but what do you know about being around a kid?”

  “My best friend’s girl had a baby while I was in the army. I was essentially a live-in manny.”

  Miles thought Emerson might turn him down because they didn’t know each other too well, but to his surprise, Emerson wrapped him in a big, dragon hug.

  “You can be our manny anytime. Thank you.”

  Emerson pulled away and Miles watched as the man’s whole body relaxed. Emerson had a lot to deal with. He ran the whole island, but that entailed a lot. He had to deal with buildings and taxes and grumpy old dragons. He had to deal with security and wildlife and imports. It was Emerson’s job to make sure everyone was safe and alive and happy.

  There wasn’t a lot Emerson didn’t have to deal with, in fact, and Miles wondered if the poor guy ever had a chance to just be.

  “About Penelope,” Emerson started on. He ran his hand through his thick dark hair. He had grown it out a bit since the last time Miles had seen him. Emerson always had kept his hair short, cropped close to his head. Now it was longer, just a little shaggy.

  “I’m not going to hurt her, Emerson,” Miles interrupted. “I was a young kid last time. Stupid. Naïve. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

  “And you know now?”

  “I love her.”

  “You love her? Fuck. That escalated quickly. What happened to just wanting to ‘talk’ to her last night?” Emerson raised an eyebrow.

  Miles knew it was time to be perfectly honest. Go big or go home, right? He wanted Penelope, but he also knew he was going to have to fight for her. He’d probably have to fight for awhile. She didn’t do anything the easy way and she certainly wouldn’t with him.

  It was time to show Emerson where he stood.

  “I bought a house. I’m staying on the island. I’m not going anywhere. I missed Penelope for six fucking years and now that I’m back, I won’t let her get away again.”

  He looked toward the building, picturing her inside. What was she doing? Was she waiting patiently at her desk, sitting there until he could come to her? Doubtful. She was probably pressed against the window, trying her best to hear what they were saying. If she had invisibility capabilities, like Daniel did, Miles had no doubt she’d be hovering nearby eavesdropping.

  “Okay, that’s all well and good, but try to tone down on the caveman creepiness, okay?” Emerson finally said. “I get that you want her, but you don’t have to be so intense about it.”

  Miles chuckled. He knew Emerson had been the same way when he’d been trying to win Janae’s heart. Emerson hugged him again – damn, being a father had turned him into a teddy bear – and took off down the road. No doubt, he was ready to get back to Janae and Weston
. Miles stared at the little one-story building where all of Dragon Isle’s affairs were handled and wondered what Penelope was doing in there.

  What was she wearing?

  What was she thinking?

  Was she missing him as much as he missed her?

  12

  Although Penelope tried to eavesdrop, Emerson’s words were too quiet for even her dragon hearing.

  When Miles came inside, he looked serious, but happy.

  “I’m glad to see you,” he said, striding towards her. He hugged her, but she tensed as he did. Her body wanted to relax. Really, it did, but she was suddenly feeling scared.

  She was scared of how vulnerable she felt around him.

  She was scared of how intimate things had been.

  It hadn’t felt like just sex. It hadn’t felt like just some fun. No, what happened between them had felt real, serious. She wanted to be flippant about it, but she couldn’t, not when he had been so intense.

  So wonderful.

  “I have some news,” he said, stroking her arms, and then she did relax. Maybe it was because she wasn’t human or maybe it was just because it was him, but feeling him pet her always relaxed her. No matter how upset she was, she couldn’t be when he touched her like that.

  “Oh yeah?” She picked up her bag and headed outside. He followed her. Then she locked up the office and turned to him. “Tell me.”

  “I bought a house.”

  Her mouth dropped open.

  “What?”

  “I bought a place. A house.”

  “You just bought a house?” He was leaving again. So soon? He had just come back and now he’d gone and bought a house?

  What the hell had just happened?

  She tried not to feel angry at her own stupidity, but she couldn’t help it. Penelope had been trying to convince herself that worrying was stupid, that this game they were playing was something more, but now he’d gone and bought a permanent place to live.

  Without her.

  Once again, he was leaving.

  Miles opened his mouth to speak, but she couldn’t do it. Not again. Even if he warned her for real, even if he gave her this advance notice that he was leaving, she didn’t want to. She couldn’t.

  Penelope stripped quickly, rendering him speechless for a moment. Then she tossed her clothes and purse into the basket beside her building. Before Miles could say another word, she was running.

  “Penny?”

  She shifted and leapt into the air, flying away. Running away. Getting away from Miles.

  He was going to hurt her. Men always hurt her. Maybe there was something wrong with her or maybe she was just an idiot.

  Either way, she wasn’t going to stick around and get hurt again.

  Not this time.

  **

  She flew around the island twice. Penny rarely flew over the ocean. Kade’s first wife, Olivia, had been killed by dragon poachers. There hadn’t been any sightings of them in years. Since Emerson became clan leader, he’d put in place many things that kept the dragons safer.

  Transportation was one of them.

  While before, dragons had to fly in order to leave the island, now there were boats in place that ran regularly. The captains were all discreet. Some of them were even dragons. Emerson’s brother-in-law, Liam, ran the harbor, and he made sure all of his boatmen were carefully vetted.

  He wasn’t going to let anything happen to the dragons who had become his family.

  Penny flew several times until she ended up, quite unexpectedly, at the beach on the southernmost point of the island.

  She hadn’t been there in years, hadn’t walked with her feet in the sand, hadn’t felt the water against her skin.

  Penny shifted back to her human form to think about what she had done. She had run. The very thing she had accused Miles of doing, she herself had done.

  What did that make her?

  It certainly didn’t make her very nice.

  Fuck.

  She had really messed it up this time. Miles had been trying to talk to her and she had run away like a child.

  Worse than a child.

  She had run away like she just didn’t care.

  Hadn’t she shown that to him over and over again? When he left, she’d been so hurt that she hadn’t even written to him, and he’d written to her.

  He’d sent her letters from basic training and again at his first duty station, but after a year, the letters stopped.

  After a year, he had finally gotten the message that she didn’t want to be with him.

  She had gotten her point across.

  But he hadn’t given up on her. Not like she’d given up on him. What was wrong with her? Miles had come back from the fucking dead and he’d given her another shot.

  And now she was blowing it because, what?

  She was scared?

  Everyone was scared sometimes. She knew for a fact that Janae had been terrified to get together with Emerson. Skye had been afraid when she realized she was falling for Allen. Fuck, even Audrey, who always had her act together, had been nervous about accepting her destiny with Anthony and Gabriel.

  And Penelope had fallen hard for a human. That wasn’t so bad. At least, it hadn’t been until she’d completely freaked out on him. She hadn’t even let him finish talking. Dammit. She was tempted to go see one of her girlfriends, to have them talk some sense into her, but she knew what she had to do.

  She had to go back and make things right. Maybe he’d let her come with him. Maybe she could work remotely. She already had most of her business online. She did web design and management from home. Very rarely did she have to meet with clients in person.

  She could make it work.

  She could find him and they could do this thing.

  They could.

  Penelope shifted back.

  It was time to go apologize.

  She had messed up big time, and it was time to admit her mistakes.

  13

  When Penelope got back to the village, she wasn’t sure where to start looking for Miles. He could be anywhere, and she didn’t know where he was staying. Surely he hadn’t left the island already. When he said he bought a house, he didn’t sound like he was in a hurry. Maybe he was eating dinner. The first thing she needed to do was get dressed. She didn’t have her house keys, so she flew to her office to retrieve her clothes and purse.

  Miles wasn’t there, of course. He had left. She had been gone for a few hours, so she didn’t expect him to be there. She did notice, though, that her purse and keys were gone. Miles must have taken them for safekeeping, realizing she was running off to have herself a good, old-fashioned temper tantrum. He knew her well, apparently, and part of her felt warm and happy that despite their fight, he’d been calm enough to take care of her belongings.

  Dragon Isle was a safe enough place, so Penny never felt bad leaving her money or keys in one of the baskets scattered in front of various buildings. People were always shifting at random intervals, so having a place to leave your clothes was important. That didn’t mean it was a good idea to leave her stuff just lying around, she knew, and Miles had been gone for a long time. He’d been living in the city and probably was fully focused on all that entailed. Maybe there was a lot of crime where he’d been stationed. She didn’t know.

  What she did know was that, keys or not, she didn’t want to lose him. She slid on her clothes and shut the top to the basket. Her shoes were uncomfortable and her feet were sore, so she carried them in her hands. Penelope felt a rush of guilt and anxiety settle in her belly as she left her office to walk around the tiny town. She had messed up this time. She had messed up bad.

  Miles had tried so hard, been so brave, and she had failed him, let him down.

  Where was he staying? If she figured that out, she could find him, or at least wait outside until he came back from wherever he was.

  She stopped by Dragon’s Inn, but he wasn’t there. Angelina and Brenda, two of the servers, asked i
f she wanted to stay for a drink, anyway, but Penelope politely turned them down.

  She needed to find him.

  Fully focused on her mission, she decided to take a chance and see if Mrs. Thurman could tell her where Miles was staying. Penelope doubted Miles was staying at her place. Though she was his stepgrandmother, Mrs. Thurman was very particular about visitors, and she liked having her own space. She would probably let Miles stay with her short-term, but Penelope knew the two of them would get in each other’s way far too much for it to be a lengthy visit.

  The elderly dragonwoman lived in town, but Penelope didn’t see her too often. That is, unless Mrs. Thurman was on one of her missions with Mrs. Helsley and Mrs. Franklin. Then there was no getting away from her. The elderly women loved Emerson and Dragon Isle and had plenty ideas for making their island better.

  The trouble was that they tended to work themselves into a frenzy about those ideas, so by the time they came in to talk with Emerson, they were already wound so tight Penelope wondered how they could breathe.

  Mrs. Thurman lived in a little house a few streets over from the main road. The main street was where Dragon’s Inn and the town’s souvenir and trinket shop were both located, but it also held several other small stores and houses.

  Penelope could have flown, but decided to take her time walking and enjoy the scenery. She passed a few families with small children playing in the yard and it reminded her of her own childhood on the island.

  The community was its own, but it was perfect. Dragon Isle was the perfect place to raise a family, to fall in love, to live.

  It was an idea place, she thought, to just enjoy life.

  When she reached the tiny one-story house where Mrs. Thurman lived, Penelope stood outside.

  “Hi, Mrs. Thurman. I’m sure you know Miles is back,” she practiced saying aloud, but shook her head. It sounded stupid. “Mrs. Thurman, I was wondering if you’d seen Miles? I’m kind of looking for him.”