“It’s bewildering. I’ve learned so much in the last couple of days. I can shift into a dragon. Some of my kin was a crazy, dark dragon overlord, and another part of my kin was sent away by him. My girlfriend is expecting some sort of supernatural shifter child. It’s a lot to let sink in.”
“Yeah, it is for me, too,” she admitted.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make this all about me. It must be something else for you to consider, as well. I understand now why my parents made the choice they did in leaving that place and not telling me who and what I am. It must be a crazy life to lead where people shift into dragons and kill one another. I mean, you can’t let people know what you are. It’s maddening when you think about it.”
“I can only imagine, but what do you think is better? If your parents had never told you the truth, it’s not like you would have found out, I don’t think. Would you have been happy just being who and what you are?”
“Yes, absolutely, and a part of me wishes I didn’t know still. I mean, I almost got in a dragon fight earlier today. How crazy is that?”
“I think the word I would go with is something more like terrifying rather than crazy, but yeah, I get that.”
“It was that, too, but also exhilarating. I’ve never felt so alive in my life, Stephanie. I mean, I thought I had a good life. I love you, and I love everything we have, but when I took off from our room last night and flew over the sea, it was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. The freedom, the beauty of it all. It was incredible.”
“And what about our child? Do you think we should allow him or her that freedom, or is it better not to ever reveal it?”
“I don’t know. There is good and bad in both answers. I can’t say right now, but obviously, we are going to have to decide pretty soon.”
“Yes, we are.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“You can put that over there,” Stephanie was telling the moving men a few months later.
She stood in the middle of their house and looked around at all the boxes stacked everywhere, then glanced down at the growing bulge in her midriff, placing her hand on it as she spoke.
“We have a lot to do to get settled into this place, my little dragon.”
At times, she almost felt as if she was carrying an alien around inside of her. By no means was this a normal child, but she knew it wasn’t quite an alien either. Still, he or she would be something very different from the person bringing them into the world. Stephanie couldn’t help but marvel at the changes in her life during the past year and a half as she looked out the window at Neil, helping the moving men carry furniture and boxes inside.
“Don’t drop that!” he told one of them as they stepped into the house. “It made it a very long way safely to get broken now!”
“You are a nuisance. Let them do their jobs,” she told him.
“Just trying to get your stuff in here in one piece,” he told her.
“It will be fine. You can take the overachiever out of the New York office, but he is still just as high strung as ever.”
“As if you are any better. Are you sure you are okay with this? This is really what you want?” he asked.
“I absolutely am. It was time for a change of scenery from those dirty streets and loud noises. This will be so much better for the baby and for us,” she told him.
“I think so, too. Plus, he’ll have lots of little friends that I won’t have to worry about him scorching or freezing on the playground.”
“There is that. Listen, as soon as we get all this stuff in the house, we have to go over to Amy and Owen’s for dinner. I promised.”
“We aren’t even moved in yet and you’re already attending dinner parties with friends? You will make someone a great wife one day,” he told her.
“Yes, I will, and speaking of that, we need to get back to our wedding planning.”
“We do, but we have a lot to sort out here first. Our visas are dependent on our getting our business up and running right away, and we have to get all this stuff unpacked, too. Plus, it’s going to be a real handful to plan a wedding in New York when you are all the way over in Ireland now.”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about that, and I’ve decided to maybe have a smaller wedding.”
“You’ve talked about nothing but a big wedding since we got engaged. It’s a big part of the reason we’ve waited until we could get through all the financial crap we were going through.”
“I know, but with everything that has happened, none of that seems very important anymore.”
“What do you want to do then?”
“I was thinking a small wedding on those beautiful cliffs by the sea with just a few family and friends. I can bring my mother and brother over to attend and you can bring your parents, plus invite some of our new friends from the village.”
“Sounds good to me, but then I was willing to marry you at a justice of the peace and live in a box with you in Central Park.”
“I know you were, and had it come down to that, we would have done exactly that.”
“No, I don’t think so. Cardboard is highly flammable. What if that kid hiccupped and accidentally set our home on fire?”
“I don’t think that happens? Amy said they don’t get fire until later when they know how to handle it. Plus, there is a good chance that we might end up with frostbite instead if we have a little ice dragon.”
“I can’t imagine what sort of life we are going to lead here or what sort of parents we are going to be to a child that we can barely even comprehend,” Neil groaned.
“I guess we will figure it out as we go. If nothing else, we will have plenty of help with it living here in the village.”
“That is very true. I don’t think any of these kids have accidentally killed their parents just yet. Hopefully, we won’t be the first.”
“I certainly hope not. Be hell trying to explain that to the authorities, and can you imagine our obituaries?”
“I’m trying not to,” Stephanie admitted.
They both laughed so hard that the movers stopped what they were doing in the next room and looked at them questioningly. Neil waved them on to finish what they were doing as he leaned over to kiss her and then went back out to help them. An hour later, they were having dinner with Amy and Owen at Cassi’s diner, already a favorite spot of theirs.
Chapter Twenty-Three
It was a warm summer day when Neil and Stephanie stood on the cliffs overlooking the Irish Sea and said their vows. The wedding was well attended by their family and everyone that had gotten to know them in the village with a huge party that followed at one of the large, stately homes loaned to them by a local family.
They had become quite popular in the village with their new business, a new venture that was a far cry from their days as sought-after ad executives. Instead, they now found themselves utilizing their marketing skills to showcase tourism and travel across Ireland, including some of the areas around the village, though not the village itself.
As far as the people there had come, they were still not ready to invite outsiders in with open arms. The last thing they needed was to open themselves up to unnecessary scrutiny from people who might not understand their ways. Though the village they lived in was fairly modern and seemed no different than any other small town in Ireland, the people that lived there knew it was very different and had no desire for anyone beyond their city limits to learn why.
Despite the secrets it held, it was a beautiful place to live. Stephanie and Neil found themselves falling in love with it more every day. They had thought they would miss the big city and all that it had to offer, but they no longer did. This place had become home to them now and Neil loved the fact that he could spread his wings and take flight without fear of being seen by anyone who would not understand. It was a freedom that he was looking forward to sharing with their child one day.
“What do you think we will have? A boy or a girl?” he asked as they stood
looking around at their guests during the ceremony.
“Does it matter?” Stephanie asked.
“Not to me, but I’m less likely to get into dragon fights if it is a boy. If we have a daughter, I fear that someday we’ll have a lot of frozen teenage dragon statues standing around our yard,” he laughed.
“Oh, playing the part of overprotective father already, are we?” Stephanie teased.
“Of course. I can’t have some little punk trying to take advantage of my only daughter.”
“You mean like you took advantage of me?” she said.
“What? I did no such thing. You wanted me. If anyone was taken advantage of, it was me. I practically had to beat you off of me a couple of times before I finally gave in.”
“You have a very shaky memory when it comes to the facts, mister,” she laughed.
“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure that is exactly how it happened.”
“And I’m pretty sure that on that very first night that we had to bundle up for warmth beneath the covers and I woke up to find you had inadvertently curled up against me in your sleep was not as innocent as I thought.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” he replied.
“Well, I know the second night, you thought I was asleep and you had to be wide awake after putting wood on the fire. Yet, you did the same thing. So, I’m highly suspicious.”
“Look, I knew that you wanted me to cuddle with you. You were practically begging me to spoon with you, but I didn’t want to put you on the spot by asking, so I just did what I knew you wanted.”
“You mean what you wanted.”
“I mean what we wanted,” he shot back with a grin.
“Okay. Fine. I’ll give you that one. I was glad you were spooning with me.”
“See? I knew it! And look at us now! If I hadn’t made that first move, we’d still be back in New York, and you’d be slaving away for some ad agency you hated, and I’d be eating cold cereal on my sofa at home between my four jobs after Johnston fired us for burning all his stuff to keep warm. Cuddling kept us from burning so much more of his things, really. We would both be miserable.”
“I’m going to let you win this one, but only because I really did want you to spoon with me. I just happen to know you had no way of knowing that. You took a big chance.”
“It was worth every risk, every pitfall, every moment of misery Johnston put us through just to end up here with you.”
“I agree completely,” she told him, kissing him as some of the wedding guests cheered.
It seemed like time was in fast motion after that day, with the day quickly coming where Stephanie went into labor and was rushed off to the midwife they had decided to use for the baby’s birth. They were both full of hope and anticipation as they waited for their child to be born, despite the long hours of labor that unfolded after they arrived at the room set up for the birth.
Finally, the time came and a baby was born to Neil and Stephanie Montgomery. She smiled weakly, exhausted from the labor as the midwife held up their new child and spanked it lightly on the bottom, drawing a loud breath and cry that could be heard down the hallway as several friends waited impatiently.
“Boy,” Dawn said with a giggle to everyone in the waiting room as they all turned to look at her.
Back in the room, the midwife handed the baby to Stephanie after wrapping the already sleeping child in warm blankets to keep in body heat.
“Congratulations on your new son,” she told them, as they both beamed proudly down upon him.
“Thank you!” Stephanie said proudly, looking up at Neil, who had small tears forming in his eyes.
“He’s absolutely incredible, isn’t he?” he said to Stephanie.
“That he is. I never thought I could love another man as much as I love you, but I think you might have just a bit of competition for my affections right here,” she told him.
“I guess I will just have to get used to sharing you then,” he told her, kissing her on the cheek.
“I can’t wait to teach you to fly,” he whispered to the tiny boy in her arms.
“I think you have to teach them to walk before he can fly,” Stephanie observed.
“You know, that’s what they say, but I think whoever wrote that never had a baby dragon. Otherwise, they would know that you can teach them to fly first.”
“What are you going to name him?” the nurse asked.
“We’ve decided to name him after Neil’s grandfather, Sebastian, and my father, Graham. Sebastian Graham Montgomery,” Stephanie said.
“There’s a fine name for Wall Street if ever I heard one,” Neil said.
“Isn’t it, though? Let’s hope he never goes there,” Stephanie laughed.
“I completely agree with that. If it is up to me, and if he is like most of the stubborn men in my family, it probably isn’t. He will never step foot on Wall Street. I much rather him be like his mother and his Uncle Charlie, learning the value of people and helping them rather than spending his days chained to a desk, trying to build a pile of dollars that he really doesn’t need in the broad scheme of things. It might have taken me a while to get here, but I’m glad I made it, and I’m so lucky to have a woman by my side that was able to reason with me and make me realize just how important it is to be happy over wealthy.”
“Perhaps, but thanks to Mr. Johnston, we can be both,” she observed.
“Well, sure, but it’s a nice sentiment. I think it made a grand first speech as a new father, didn’t you?” he laughed.
Stephanie joined him, as baby Sebastian tossed in a coo of his own. There was no place for any of them to go from here but wherever life would take them, and they all seemed eager to find out where that might be next.
In the years that would come, they would find that their child truly possessed a most incredible gift and would become every bit the man they hoped he would become, but with great fortune comes great pain, and though they might look upon the beauty their son would bring to the world with pride, it was not without its price. Still, history would show that Sebastian Graham Montgomery was one of the great men of his time. Of that, there could be no doubt.
***THE END***
Dragons of Umora 1-5 (Bonus)
Cole
Dragons of Umora Book 1
Sarah J. Stone
Chapter 1
You are not my son.
Those were the most devastating words he could think of. He would rather hear that his parents were dead, that his older brothers, the Crown Prince and the Duke, had disowned him. Anything but the fact that he was not who he thought he was.
His blood boiled in his veins as he stood in the middle of the grand hall, the gleaming thrones mocking him. Cole had been born the third Prince of Umora, a planet so advanced in civilization that there was no pain, no suffering, and virtual immortality through science. Everyone on Umora was some sort of shifter, some sort of magical creature – whether it be wolf, lion, or otherwise. The dragon shifters, however, had always been the royal family, ruling over those beneath them. The witches, the werewolves, and the lions all bowed down to the dragon shifters.
Cole always believed his place in the world was at the top with everyone bowing down to him. He knew that his magic was better than the rest of his family's, but he never thought anything of it. It was a gift, after all.
What he didn’t know, however, was that he was a half-breed witch and dragon shifter – a bastard orphan left on the door steps. He claimed potential royal blood from both sides or neither. He was everything and nothing at the same time.
He should have inherited the richness of the witches and the power of the dragons.
Instead, he lost it all when his father admitted the truth.
There would be no throne for Cole on Umora, no happy ending here. He had been cheated out of everything by matters of his birth.
Cole saw only red as he spun around, looking at the murals on the walls.
This explained so much about h
is life, about his feelings, and about why he felt like he never fit in. Growing up, it became apparent that he was different than the rest of his family. His magic did not come in the same way theirs did. He could not focus in the same way, could not create the same things. Cole needed to eat more than the rest of them, and more frequently. Alexander seemed to only nibble twice a week, and Nicholas took great pride in large feasts and social meals. But Cole was always ravenous, always strong, and always a moment away from rage.
His rage was so different than Nicholas's rage. Nicholas was simply a kind soul and fiercely loyal, but also ready to destroy anyone who came near those whom he loved. Cole seemed to rage out for no reason, and he himself admitted that he threw tantrums when he didn't get his way.
Everyone was unfair to him. His brothers were allowed to do things that he wasn't. His parents let them lead wars and lash out. But Cole was punished unfairly, even by his brothers. They always treated him like a mischievous child who didn't know how to handle himself.
Death was nothing to him. Feeding for the sake of something to do was nothing to him. He loved the attention, loved the power, but hated how they scolded him.
And now, it was clear that this was not the place he belonged. All these years of trying to fit in, and he wasn't really one of them anyways. They didn't want him; that much was clear.
He continued spinning, barely seeing, barely thinking. His anger was uncontrollable, and his rage lay in front of him. He wanted power. He wanted control. He wanted to show them what he was capable of. He was not a child to be scolded, nor was he someone to be put aside.
And that is when he spotted Earth – painted blue, small, and fragile – in the upper corner of the wall.
If he could not have Umora, if they thought he didn't belong here, he would show them where he did. He would find his own Kingdom; he would make his own throne.
Stuck in the Cabin (Exiled Dragons Book 8) Page 12