by Ariel Marie
Willow nodded and began trying to work on freeing her grandmother from the binds.
“I’m so sorry,” she cried, working the knots in the rope, trying to loosen them.
“You don’t have to apologize. None of this is your fault,” Delia urged. “Now hurry. That wolf’s coming.”
A rumble caused the ground to shake, and Willow glanced up as the wolf appeared, but it’s attention was on something behind it. She could feel the power of Feno flowing through the air.
“It’s your dragon,” Delia announced as the ropes finally fell to the ground. They scrambled over and huddled against the wall, just as the wolf turned back to them. It didn’t get the chance to charge at them before Feno appeared behind it, throwing his body on top of the wolf.
Willow gasped as she watched her mate wrestle the wolf to the ground. She moved toward them, but Delia grabbed her arm.
“Let him handle the wolf.”
Her eyes locked on the pair as they tussled back and forth, before Feno flipped them and gained control. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him grab the wolf’s jaw as it snapped at him. He pulled hard, snapping the jaw wide apart, killing the wolf instantly. The wolf’s body slumped still against the cave floor.
“Feno!” she cried out, rushing to his side. She flung her body at him as he stood, uncaring that he was covered in blood. “Are you injured?”
She pulled back and tried to assess him to see if he would need her help in healing.
“I’m fine,” he murmured as he looked over her head. “Delia. It’s good to see you.”
“Likewise, Feno. I thank you for rescuing me. But we need to go. I need to find out who the traitor is in my coven.” Her grandmother moved to their side, her eyes softening as she looked at the two of them.
“Grandmother, did you know all those years ago when you would tell me stories of dragons, and that my mate would be one?” Willow asked, leaning into Feno’s strong embrace.
“I wasn’t for sure, but I was able to put two and two together. We can talk about my premonition later. We have a traitor in our coven, and it’s time we found out who.”
Feno paced the floor in the kitchen of his condo. Delia and Willow were sitting at the kitchen table, speaking in hushed tones. Once they had arrived at his condo, he had assured that his mate’s grandmother got a shower, had fresh clothes and food. Instead of resting since being captured, the high priestess was planning her revenge.
“Tonight, we’ll need to go to Blue Moon Coven and have them aid us. I’m sure Daire will help me,” Delia announced.
“The Blue Moon have already pledged their help,” Willow informed her. “What do you want them to do?”
“My dear, I don’t know why our own coven has turned on you and me, but we will get to the bottom of it. I can’t imagine the entire coven has turned. I have a feeling that it’s one person, but I need proof. I need to see the traitor with my own eyes.”
Willow nodded as she listened to her grandmother. Her eyes caught Feno’s, and he could see the pain in her eyes. His dragon didn’t like the pain that was there, but at the moment, there was nothing he could do but support her.
“Willow, we’re going to use you as bait,” Delia declared as she reached across the table and took her hand.
“What?” he snapped, pausing to stare at the woman. Had she lost her mind?
“We’re only going to tell my coven that the Blue Moon are holding her for her crimes for taking me out. We won’t even give away that I’m rescued, even though they may already know since they won’t be able to contact the rogue leader. We must do this now. No one will touch my granddaughter.”
He settled down at this information. His dragon was ready to defend his mate and refuse to let her be a part of a scheme that would harm her.
“It’s okay, Feno. I too want to know why my coven turned on us.” Willow petted Delia’s hand as she smiled at the woman.
“Feno, I would never put my granddaughter in direct harm,” Delia noted, her eyes turning to him. “I believe it to be one of the elders, and believe me, they will pay dearly for what they’ve done.”
“Whatever you need from me, Delia, you may have,” he offered. He would help them capture whoever had tried to ban his mate from her coven.
“Unfortunately, this is between witches. I won’t really need your help. This I can handle.” The elder witch turned to him, and he knew that she could. He glanced at Willow and saw the same determination on her face. He pitied the witch that turned on these two. “But I would need to use your phone so that I may call on Daire.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Delia, it is good to see you safe and sound,” Daire greeted them as they arrived. The sun had just gone down as they arrived at the Blue Moon’s Coven. Witches, needing to connect with nature, naturally built their covens deep in the middle of the woods so that they could connect with the Earth.
The small building was hidden in the woods, and it would be here that Willow could confront the witch who set her up. She swallowed as she looked around at the witches from the Blue Moon Coven in support of her and her grandmother.
“Come with us,” Sunny murmured as she gestured for Willow to follow her.
She followed behind her to another witch as they prepared for the arrival of her coven. She blew out a nervous breath as they cuffed her with silver handcuffs, which would prevent her from casting any spells or using her powers. She felt vulnerable, but knew that her grandmother was nearby, as was Feno.
“Are you okay?” Sunny asked as they proceeded to attached a chain to a pole that was in the center of the yard. She would be on display as a traitor to her people. Once her coven came, her grandmother would then know who the real traitor was.
She had shared with her grandmother everything that had happened after she was taken. She was willing to fight beside her to get their coven back. It was started by their family, and would continue to be ruled by them.
“I’ll be just fine as soon as this is over with,” she surmised, tugging on the chain. It didn’t give her that much leeway, but it would do.
“Someone has arrived,” a voice called out from the building.
Showtime.
The witches of the Blue Moon Coven scrambled around to get into their places. They each wore their ceremonial dark robes as they gathered around her. She kept her gaze on the ground as she tried to sum up the strength to act defeated.
The air grew quiet as they all waited. Off in the distance, the sound of car doors slamming shut could be heard. Her heart raced as she tried to figure out who it could be. Who was the traitor?
Was it Mystia, her preceptor? Could it be Athan, the oldest elder? Or Hild, the newest elder that was promoted a few years ago? Willow knew that once her Uncle Tade found out that her grandmother was safe and Willow was not the person who arranged for Delia’s disappearance, all would be fine and the traitor would be punished.
“We have her secured in the back. Delia was a great supporter of our coven and we can’t believe that she is gone.” Daire’s voice floated through the air as she drew closer.
Willow braced herself for the sight of her coven. She hadn’t seen or spoken to any of the elders since they blocked her from her grandmother’s home. They didn’t even have the nerve to do it in person. They sent a paranormal security team to escort her from Delia’s home, so she’d grabbed what she could and ran.
While on the way to Blue Creek, she had begun to hear the rumors that were being spread about her demanding to come into power. All lies. Now the truth would finally be known to everyone.
Her hair hung over her face, providing a curtain for her. She knew how she would look once someone glanced at her. She wanted to appear defeated in the eyes of the traitor.
“Here she is,” Daire announced.
Willow waited, listening to the footsteps that drew closer to her. Her heart pounded in her chest as she waited. She could see the tips of a dark robe in front of her.
“Loo
k at me, Willow,” the voice commanded. It was cold, hard, and drew a gasp from her. Her head popped up and she couldn’t believe that it was her Uncle Tade standing in front of her.
Her eyes widened as she stared at him.
No, it couldn’t be. She refused to believe that it was her uncle who had done this.
“Uncle—”
“Silence,” he growled. He stood before her, dressed in the same gowns as the witches of the Blue Moon for their ‘ceremonial punishment.’ Her eyes searched his, and long gone was the uncle who had helped raise her. She couldn’t find the gentle man who’d helped her learn her first spells as a child.
No, in his place stood an evil man, one that she didn’t know.
He was the Lunar Coven’s traitor.
“You have disgraced the family name, Willow King,” Tade sneered as he paced in front of her. “My dearly departed sister would be ashamed to know that you conspired to kill her after everything she had done for you.”
Willow felt her heart shatter to pieces at her uncle’s words. She knew that her grandmother was nearby, listening to everything, but Willow couldn’t move. She kept her eyes trained on him because she didn’t want to see the pity in the eyes of the local coven. All this time, she had assumed it was Mystia who wanted to take over the coven. She had been looking at the wrong person. If it hadn’t been for him standing in front of her, she would never have believed that he, her uncle, her blood, would have been the one who conspired to get rid of her and her grandmother.
“I would like to thank the Blue Moon Coven for capturing my niece. I shall make sure that she receives the punishment—”
“You won’t be taking Willow anywhere.” Delia’s voice broke through the quietness.
Tade’s head snapped around at the sound of his sister’s voice.
“Delia!” He turned to find Delia striding toward him with Feno, Vander, and Jodos behind her. “She was the one—”
“Silence, brother!” Delia snapped, stopping in front of him. “I know that you’ve been plotting for years to take me out.”
Feno made his way to her side, signaling to Sunny for the chains to come off of her. She could feel his animal was close, and that his dragon didn’t like seeing her in chains.
Sunny quietly moved behind Willow and began undoing the chains and handcuffs. Tade’s head snapped in her direction at the sound. Evil spewed from his glare as he strode toward her.
“She is to blame for all of this!” he screamed, raising his hand. His hand glowed a powerful light as he aimed his power at her. Willow closed her eyes and braced for the pain that she was sure to come.
But it never did.
She opened her eyes and found Feno standing in front of her. From behind him, she could see the smoke rising from him. He had stepped in and took the painful ray of energy for her. Chaos broke out around them as Tade tried to make his escape, but the elder man couldn’t outrun the two dragon shifters who caught him.
“Feno!” she cried out as he stumbled, his knees giving out. He crashed to the ground with a grunt. She knelt beside him on the ground as smoke rose from his burnt shirt that lay in tatters on his burnt flesh.
“Willow.” Through the pain, he opened his eyes to meet hers. “Are you okay?”
“Oh my God! Why would you step in front of that energy burst?” she cried out, brushing his hair from his face.
“Because you’re my mate and I’ll always protect you.”
Her eyes filled with tears while her heart filled with love for her fierce dragon, always wanting to protect her.
“Are you hurt?” she asked as she moved his torn shirt aside so that she could assess his injuries.
Her attention was grabbed by her uncle’s shouts as Vander continued to wrestle him to the ground. The other witches were placing the same handcuffs that were on Willow on her uncle. Her grandmother would deal with him. Tade would have to answer to the High Witches Council for his conspiracy to get rid of Delia. They would decide his fate.
She turned her eyes back to Feno, concerned that he was injured by the energy. If it would have hit her, she would have been burned badly from the bolt of energy.
“No. It was no more than walking through fire. I’ll be healed in a few hours time. The force of the power just knocked the breath from me.” Feno moved to sit up with a wince.
“Maybe you shouldn’t move,” she instructed, afraid that he was hiding the amount of pain he was in.
“Let me up, woman,” he growled with a twinkle in his eyes. “We have plenty of time for you to keep me on my back. Now, I just want to take my girl home so I can make an honest woman out of her.”
She smiled and moved out of his way so that he could stand. He tore the tattered shirt from his body and pulled her to him.
“Yes, my Fierce Dragon. Take me home and make me yours.”
Epilogue
Willow couldn’t stop laughing. She couldn’t remember ever laughing so hard at Vander and Feno bantering back and forth between each other. She glanced over at Faye, Vander’s mate, and shook her head.
“I think Vander lives to ruffle Feno’s feathers,” Faye said, wiping the tears from her face.
“I know,” Willow agreed, wiping her own tears of laughter away. She had finally met her sister-in-law and they instantly hit it off. They had no choice. Mated to the two Kelmyar brothers, they needed to have each other’s backs.
“Do you think they’ll get it?” Faye asked, tilting her head to the side.
“I don’t know. The instructions didn’t look that hard.” Willow shrugged her shoulders as she leaned against the doorjamb of the nursery for Vander and Faye’s child. The baby was due any moment, and the brothers were struggling, trying to put the furniture together. “Why didn’t they just pay for someone to deliver it?”
“Because humans don’t know about dragons and our castles in the mountains,” Vander answered from across the room with a roll of his eyes.
The girls looked to each other and burst out laughing, uncontrollably.
“What’s so damn funny?” Feno scowled, placing his hands on his hips as he stared at the two of them.
“Don’t you have the power to erase a human’s memories? Why wouldn’t you fly them up here in the helicopter, let them put it together, then take them back? You could then give them another memory.” Willow’s suggestion was met with silence from the men as they stared at her.
“Fuck, why didn’t I think of that?” Vander groaned, running his hands through his hair as he looked down at the pieces and parts on the floor surrounding him.
“Well, that’s what we’re going to do,” Willow announced. Now was the best time to let everyone know the secret that she’d been keeping for the past few weeks. “Feno, honey, in a few months, you’ll need to do exactly that with our nursery.”
Feno froze in place at her words, his eyes growing wide as he took a step toward her. Faye squealed and jumped in place, as much as her swollen belly would allow at the news.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” he asked, scooping her up in his arms. She laughed and cupped his face in her hands, placing a small kiss on his lips.
“You, Feno Kelmyar, will have your own little dragon to prepare for in about six months.”
“I love you, my Little Witch,” Feno murmured, his hazel eyes locked on hers.
“And I love you too, my Fierce Dragon.”
* * *
The End
A Letter To The Reader
Dear Reader,
Thank you for taking the time to read Her Fierce Dragon! I hope that you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please feel free to leave a review to let me know your thoughts. I love reading reviews from my readers. Even if you didn’t like it, I would love to know why. Reviews can be left on the platform you purchased the book, and even Goodreads!
Make sure you will explore one of the other books I have available!
Love,
Ariel Marie
&n
bsp; About the Author
Ariel Marie is an author who loves the paranormal, action and hot steamy romance. She combines all three in each and every one of her stories. For as long as she can remember, she has loved vampires, shifters and every creature you can think of. This even rolls over into her favorite movies. She loves a good action packed thriller! Throw a touch of the supernatural world in it and she’s hooked!
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