by Rinelle Grey
Dragon's Cowboy
By Rinelle Grey
© 2016 by Rinelle Grey
www.rinellegrey.com
All rights reserved.
Fated & Forbidden
11 authors. One PNR series.
After lifetimes of watching her creations perpetuate misery and destruction, the creator Allendra has had enough. She’s given them a month to prove themselves capable of love… and to prove they should keep their supernatural powers.
Some will fight, and some will fall, but all will feel the power of the Blood Moon… even Allendra herself…
It is recommended that you read the prologue before starting this story!
Download the short prologue to the series, The Challenge, for free!
Dragon's Cowboy
Dragon's Cowboy is a cross over novel, part of the Fated & Forbidden, multi-author series, and my own Dragon Echoes series.
When the goddess warns she'll turn her clan human, dragon shifter Wayrian feels duty bound to mate with her fated mate, the hot human cowboy. But that's a deal breaker for her grandfather, who wants her to impress the new dragon prince...
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Chapter 1
Wayrian sat up and rubbed her eyes, staring around her cave. But no one was there to see her bewilderment. She was in exactly the same place, and her world was exactly the same as it had been before she went to sleep.
She heaved a sigh of relief, marred only by a tinge of disappointment. It had all been a dream then. A very strange dream, but a dream none the less.
That thought should have brought her comfort, but it didn’t. The goddess hadn’t hidden the fact that she had appeared to them in a dream. She’d admitted that everyone was dreaming. But she had said it was real too.
Wayrian shivered. A dream couldn’t be real, could it? Her clan didn’t worship any gods or goddesses. In fact, given their magical powers, they had always felt they were in more of a position of being gods than serving them. And this goddess who had appeared in her dream, Allendra, wasn’t even one of the humans’ gods. She’d never even heard of her before.
She must have dreamt the whole thing.
There couldn’t really be a goddess that no one had ever heard of who was going to turn her whole clan back into humans if she didn’t find her fated mate by the end of the Blood Moon?
Could there?
Hopefully not, because that wasn’t a lot of time, and it wasn’t as if the goddess had actually been open about who this fated mate was supposed to be. Wayrian couldn’t even begin to guess.
She heaved a sigh. It was a nice thought, that the perfect man for her existed somewhere out there, but reality didn’t work like that. In reality, even if she found someone she loved, her grandfather would just forbid the relationship.
If it had been just her grandfather’s disagreement, she might have stood a chance. Though the elders would consider her grandfather’s disapproval, they had been known to overrule parent figures before.
But her grandfather wasn’t just her sole living relative. Her grandfather was one of the elders so she had little hope of ever getting permission to mate anyone other than one of the princes. Not unless they were all already mated. Or dead.
Since disobeying an elder was a severe offence in Rian clan, punishable by banishment from the clan, that didn’t leave her many options. Not unless she could somehow convince her grandfather of the dream’s importance.
As though summoned by her thoughts, her grandfather’s shrill voice echoed inside her mind, a private message for her alone. Wayrian winced as soon as she heard his first word. The dragons’ ability to speak directly into each other’s mind over short distances meant she could never escape him.
“Wayrian, hurry up. They are about to leave. I told you, you must go with them. It’s important that you catch Prince Verrian’s eye as early as possible. You may even have the chance to impress him if Ultrima does turn up for a fight. Have you been practising your water jet? I’m sure it is powerful enough to knock a dragon out of the sky.”
Wayrian bit her lip. Her grandfather’s insistence on the need for her to impress Prince Verrian was a little embarrassing. She somehow didn’t think that the prince would be considering mating as soon as he woke. He’d be far more concerned with figuring out where he was, and why so much time had passed while he was in the Mesmer sleep. If he noticed anyone, it would be the human woman who woke him.
She didn’t dare tell her grandfather that. Instead, she obediently threw back her furs and began to get ready.
She had been practising, but her grandfather’s assumption was far from true. Maybe there would be enough water to give her water jet some power if they lived somewhere other than the dry, arid plains of inland Australia, but out here…
She wasn’t going to say that to her grandfather. He would just tell her to mind her elders, and remind her that when she’d lived as long as he had, she might be able to offer a useful opinion.
As scared as she was of being in the middle of another battle, it wasn’t worth the argument. He would win. He always did, and she’d just be wrung out at the end of it.
Eventually, her grandfather would have his way, and she’d mate with one of the princes. She just hoped she didn’t have to go through too much turmoil first.
Even though Taurian, the first prince to be woken, had chosen to marry his human mate instead of her, she didn’t hold a grudge. In fact, when she did consider him, it was with the wistful hope that one day she would meet someone who loved her as much as he obviously loved Karla.
That reminded her of the dream. The goddess had said that everyone either knew their fated mate or would meet them soon, but she’d been looking directly at Wayrian when she said some of them had already met their mate, and Wayrian was sure it was the case for her.
Other than Prince Taurian, who had been woken a few weeks ago, the princes had all been asleep for over three hundred years—far longer than she had been alive. So it couldn’t be one of the princes.
Of course it couldn’t. Because the goddess had also said that this person would be forbidden. A shiver ran up Wayrian’s spine. The goddess had said that she would have to go against all she believed in for love.
There was nothing forbidden about her marrying one of the princes.
Of course, that meant her fated mate could be just about anyone. Yet, as Wayrian reviewed all the dragons of mating age, she could come up with none she felt any sort of attraction for, or even fondness. She couldn’t imagine that any of them could be her fated mate. So who?
Her heart beat a little faster. It couldn’t be…
No, it couldn’t… Even the strange, angry goddess would not do that to her, would she?
What if it was a dragon from the Trima clan?
Technically she had ‘met’ several of them at the last battle, though it had all happened far too quickly and been far too chaotic for her to even recognise them again. Except for Ultrima.
Fear of the clan enemy almost paralysed her for a moment, then she forced herself to take a deep breath and push the terror away. If, by some miracle, the goddess did exist and her challenge was true, surely she would not give Wayrian a task that impossible?
Wayrian gave herself a mental shake. Why was she even considering this so seriously? She was letting her imagination run away with her again. It had been a dream. Just a dream. Born of her fears of defying her grandfather, and her sadness that she would never have a chance to find real love.
“Wayrian!” This time the voice was not inside her head. It sent her scrambling for her clothes.
It wasn’t until she was pulling on her le
ather tunic that she saw it.
It was faint, barely noticeable, that was why she hadn’t seen it sooner. But there was clearly a strange pattern, a little like a wattle flower, on the inside of her wrist.
The mark she’d seen in her dream.
The mark the goddess had told her would help her find her fated mate.
Wayrian froze, her heart thumping loudly in her chest. Was it real? Had it somehow really happened?
If so, what did it mean? Who did the strange flower represent?
It couldn’t… it couldn’t be a lightning bolt, could it?
Wayrian stared at the flower, trying to reassure herself, but she couldn’t be certain. Some of the enemy dragons had thrown balls of lightning that could vaguely be described as flower like.
She stared at the mark for long enough that her grandfather’s presence interrupted her thoughts. He barged into the room, ignoring the fact that she was only half dressed. “They’re leaving now, and you’re going to be left behind.” He grabbed her arm and looked at it. “What are you staring at?
Wayrian wished she could snatch her arm away before he saw. The last thing she wanted was to explain the goddess’s dream to her grandfather.
But it was too late. Wayrian held her breath as he squinted at her wrist.
Maybe he wouldn’t notice. It was kind of faint and his eyesight wasn’t as good as it used to be.
No such luck. He poked at her skin where the flower was, then he used his water powers to dampen it a little and scrubbed at it, the way he’d cleaned her scraped knees after she’d been playing in the dirt as a child.
“It’s nothing,” she whispered. “Shouldn’t I be heading outside so I don’t get left behind?”
“It’s obviously not nothing,” her grandfather snapped. “What is it, and how did it get there?”
“I’ll miss the cars if I don’t go now,” Wayrian said desperately. “I can explain later.”
“If you’d stop protesting and tell me what’s going on, then it would be done and you’d be on your way,” her grandfather said firmly. He stared at her, waiting, not releasing her wrist.
For a moment, Wayrian was tempted to wait it out. If she didn’t say anything, would his need for her to be at the waking to impress Prince Verrian outweigh his need to know the answer?
Did she dare to find out?
She should be able to ignore his demands and do her own thing. She’d turned twenty-one, and been considered an adult dragon for three years now. She shouldn’t still be doing what her grandfather told her.
But when your grandfather was an elder, it wasn’t so simple. Every command he gave her was ‘for the good of the clan’, and to say no to that would imply she didn’t care about her clan, which wasn’t the case at all. Rian clan was the only thing Wayrian had ever known, she couldn’t even begin to imagine life without them. They were her family. Her home. Of course she wanted to do anything she could to help her clan.
The trouble was telling what was about her clan, and what was just about her.
If the issue was only about her, she was pretty good at being quietly stubborn. It was what water dragons did best. And it had always worked against her air dragon mother. Her mother had always forgotten about an issue long before Wayrian gave in.
Her father, another water dragon, not so much. But he’d doted on his daughter and given her everything she wanted with very little encouragement.
For a moment, she felt a familiar ache, a sadness at losing her parents in the last attempt to wake one of the princes more than ten years ago. Her mother had been shot out of the sky by one of Ultrima’s bolts of lightning, and her father, mate bonded, had only lived long enough to lament the fact that he hadn’t been able to protect her.
Their deaths had left Wayrian in her grandfather’s sole care, and changed her life dramatically. Her grandfather had never forgiven her mother for his son’s death, and Wayrian was sure that was why he’d been so hard on her since he’d taken over her care. She might be a water dragon, like her father, but she looked more like her mother, with her blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.
Washed out, her grandfather always said.
Wayrian had thought her mother was beautiful.
Her grandfather had never hidden the fact that he thought love was weak. He’d never mated permanently with her father’s mother, his only child being born of a random mating. He’d felt no pain when her grandmother had died.
He believed there was no point in mating unless it achieved something more. Something for the whole clan. Otherwise, it just made them weaker.
“Answer the question,” her grandfather demanded, his voice sharp.
He stared at her, his eyes dark, and somehow, in the memory of her mother and father and the power of their love, Wayrian found the strength to straighten her shoulders, stare him in the eyes, and say nothing.
Annoyance flashed across his face and he shifted a little, as though to get comfortable for a long wait.
Two water dragons trying to out stubborn each other could take days. Wayrian had been in those battles before. Usually, she lost. Mostly because her stomach rumbling distracted her.
But not this time.
This time, she wasn’t going to be the one to back down.
If nothing else, the battle of stubbornness would get her out of going to the real battle. It would be over long before either of them gave up. That thought gave her an extra reason to stick out her lower lip and say nothing.
Her grandfather changed tack with a suddenness that took her breath away. “We don’t have time for this. You can tell me on the way.” And he started marching her towards the door.
On the way…?
Wayrian’s heart rate sped up.
The only thing worse than going into the middle of a potential battle, would be going with her grandfather.
If he wasn’t there, all he would have to go on would be the stories of the others, none of who would be paying any attention to what she was doing.
If he were there, he would be pushing her into the middle of the fight, hoping she’d impress Prince Verrian. Panic rose up in Wayrian at the thought.
That was the last place she wanted to be.
Suddenly, telling him about the dream seemed minor in comparison.
“It was a dream,” she blurted out.
Her grandfather paused and his grip on her wrist loosened a bit. “Go on,” he prompted.
Wayrian squirmed a little, feeling lousy for being tricked into giving in so easily. As she tried to think of the words to explain, she realised it was going to sound made up, no matter how she put it.
Then again, she did have the mark on her arm as proof. Of a sort.
“I dreamt that a goddess, Allendra, pulled a whole heap of shifters together in one room. Not just dragons, but other types as well. Did you know there were other types of shifters, Grandfather?” Wayrian looked up, hoping to catch an answer on his face, even if he didn’t admit anything.
But his expression was blank. “It’s a dream. How would I know what would happen in your dream?”
That didn’t bode well for him believing her.
Wayrian swallowed. “She said she was tired of us fighting all the time and that she was going to take away our dragon form. Turn us back into humans.”
Her grandfather raised an eyebrow. “If she’s punishing dragons for fighting, it is the Trima clan she should be focusing on, not us. Your dream is very nonsensical, youngling.”
Wayrian ignored the fact that she sort of agreed with him, and that he seemed to be discounting her dream as a simple fantasy. For some reason, she felt the need to tell him, as though to unburden herself to someone. Maybe he would see something in the dream that she had missed.
Maybe he’d be able to convince her that it really was just a dream
“She said she was giving us one last chance to redeem ourselves. If we all proved that we could think of more than fighting by mating with our fated mates by the Blood Moon, she’d l
et us remain as shifters.”
Wayrian waited, holding her breath. What would he think of her dream? Would he dismiss it?
She half hoped he would. It would make it easier for her to do the same.
She didn’t want all that responsibility on her shoulders. Maybe if her grandfather intervened…
“A silly, girly dream,” her grandfather said flatly. “Real mating is nothing like dreams. And what does it have to do with the mark on your wrist anyway?”
Her face heated. How had she left that bit off when that was what had sparked the question?
“It’s supposed to give me a clue as to who my fated mate is.”
Her grandfather bent and examined the mark again, his expression unreadable. He turned her wrist one way, and then the other, squinting at it. “Perhaps it could be water droplets?” he mused. “Prince Calrian is a water dragon, and though mating water with water isn’t a good plan, it is better than fire and water.”
“I thought it looked a little like a wattle flower,” Wayrian blurted out.
“And how would a wattle flower represent one of the princes?” her grandfather asked. His gaze narrowed. “Or do you have someone in mind? You’re not going to refuse to help your clan because of a dream, are you? It is important that you, a dragon, mate with Prince Verrian, before this whole thing gets too out of hand.”
Wayrian still wasn’t sure how mating with a prince she didn’t even know would help the clan, but she wasn’t going to say that. It wouldn’t do any good. But she couldn’t help muttering to herself, “Yeah, takes a lot of effort to send me out into a battle to impress a prince none of us have ever met.”
She was sure she’d only said it in her mind, not out loud, but she shrank back from the frown on her grandfather’s face anyway.
Despite her reluctance to anger him further, she couldn’t just let it go. His quick dismissal had soothed none of her nerves. She wanted a thought out, reasoned answer as to why she should dismiss the dream. Maybe that would make ignoring it easier.