Lilly: Dragon Clan

by Skye Jones

  “What did that sandwich do to you?”

  His head shot up, and he frowned at her. “Nothing. I haven’t eaten all day, made this, but now I don’t want it.”

  “What is it?”

  “Chicken and avocado.”

  Yummy. “I’ll gladly take it off your hands if you don’t want it.”

  He pushed the plate across the counter. “Have at it.”

  She took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. “Why can’t you eat?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Because I worry too much. My mind’s all focused on those bastards and the shit they’re liable to bring down on our heads.”

  Not needing to ask who the bastards were, she nodded. “Are they staying for long?”

  “A while, yep. A day’s too long if you ask me.”

  She swallowed another bite down and went to the sink to grab a glass of water. “Why not ask them to leave?”

  “Because this is Nate’s decision. His cousin. His family. Ultimately, his clan. I don’t like it one bit.”

  Her stomach churned as she remembered their words. “They say they’re here for me.”

  He regarded her with suddenly solemn eyes. “I won’t lie to you, Lilly. They are here for you. They say they match you, and I scented it.”

  “What does it mean? Match me. Makes it sound like we’re swatches of wallpaper or something, and they’ve found a pattern to complement theirs.”

  “It’s actually a clever way of describing it. Think along those lines, but the patterns are your hormones, your scent, fuck…every atom of yourself. It’s as if the gods made you for one another.”

  The idea terrified her because, if true, then it meant these guys were to her what Dom and Nathan were to Claire. And she’d heard from her sister how she’d had no chance once she’d spent time in her mates’ company. Part of Lilly wanted to run across the grass outside the house and into the garden, where Rhyndor probably still did his martial arts thing, and hug herself to him. The other half of her wanted to hightail it back to Connecticut on the next flight. Forget she’d ever seen the two men.

  “There’s no need to be scared.” Dom broke in to her thoughts. “If you don’t want anything to do with them, Nathan won’t push it, and he won’t allow them to see you.”

  She drank her water and picked up the plate with the remaining half of sandwich on it. She pushed it toward Dom, but she walked over to the trash and threw it away when he shook his head. “I’m not scared about being forced to see them. I’m scared I won’t be able to stop myself, and I’ve only spent five minutes in their company.”

  Too uncomfortable with the truth she’d spoken, she patted Dom on the shoulder and headed out of the kitchen and back to her room.

  *****

  Rhyndor finished his tai chi and looked toward the house where Lilly stayed. The moment he’d scented her again, so glorious and rich and his, he’d wanted her. But he also believed this whole trip to be a bad idea. Who knew how Steffan might react to finding him alive, and the news would spread like wildfire, he had no doubt. Worse, he worried how he’d react facing old foes again. Feared some part of Celine’s enchantment still lingered. He’d faced dozens of dragons and hundreds of humans and never retaliated when they hurt him, but he’d always been afraid Steffan or perhaps Nathan might be different. The ancient witch had programmed him to kill Steffan, and he feared some elemental part of her dark magic remained in him, dormant but waiting to be turned on again. Steffan might well turn out to be the switch.

  He cracked his neck from one side to the other and gave a last glance at the big house before striding back to the cottage they stayed in. He pulled his T-shirt on. At the last moment, about to put his hand on the door handle and enter the cottage, he paused, and on some sort of crazy whim, turned and headed toward Nathan and Dom’s place. Fuck it. He wanted to speak to Nathan alone. Without Callum there. His bonded male meant well, but he came across as way too overprotective and combative. If they were to make any sort of headway forging a peace with Steffan, a more emollient stance came in handy.

  He banged on the door, waiting for one of the manservants to answer, when he realized he looked a mess in his sweat pants and Henley. But who cared? He wanted to talk to Nathan, and if he didn’t do it now, he’d chicken out and head on back to the cottage they stayed in. Not one for making the chatty-chatty, he struggled to talk with anyone but Callum these days. If he left things to his male, though, he foresaw the confrontational vibe intensifying. It didn’t take a genius to recognize the lingering rivalry between Nathan and Callum. Their relationship reminded him of brothers. Nathan relented because Callum was his blood, but he did so with no small measure of resentment. Rhyndor needed to convince the clan leader of the moral rightness of his actions. Because if he knew one thing about the Nathan of old, it was his moral core.

  The door swung back, and his eyes widened. Lilly stood there, looking divine, as if she’d fallen from heaven. Her long, dark hair hung down her back like a shiny curtain, and her eyes were the most astonishing color in the pale afternoon light. The air nipped at his skin, and he noticed the cold for the first time. It would soon be turning seriously wintry in this part of the world. Not wanting her to get chilled, he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. She put her hands on her hips and jutted her chin.

  “You’d better not be coming to take me away. I might have had a…moment back there in the kitchen, but I’ll fight you tooth and nail if you try to kidnap me.”

  His lips twitched, an unfamiliar sensation as a genuine smile tugged at his mouth. “No kidnapping. Dragon’s honor. I’ve come to talk with Nathan. Things got a little heated earlier, and I don’t want it to go down this way.”

  He put his hand on her lower back, only meaning to guide her away from the door, but the moment the innocent touch connected, his entire world spun on its axis. Holy hell! Her scent rushed into him, the slender curve of her back and the way her suddenly huge eyes widened farther all hit him straight in the gut. A protective instinct rushed over him, something he hadn’t felt in a long time. The need to cherish, to keep safe.

  Of course, he cared about keeping Callum safe, but Callum was a big, tough male, who could more than care for himself. In fact, he looked after Rhyndor, not the other way around. Now, feeling the fragility of Lilly under his palm, instincts long dormant roared to life. Not only was she petite, but she’d been thrown a massive curveball while young and utterly inexperienced in their way of life. And returning to her human life presented many dangers.

  Although dragons did choose to live apart from their brethren, they rarely flourished if alone. They, at the very least, needed close dragon kin or friends, better yet, a bonded male or mates, if female. Or a parent figure, a dragon parent. Lilly would be going back to her life in the States with none of those support systems in place. And from what he’d learned about her from the report the private detective had given them, the home life she’d return to was one of duty and money and appearances above all else. If she’d still been in her first, much more loving adoptive home, he’d worry less. But of course, he never would have met her then, as she’d still be living in England.

  Lilly put her hand to her head and wiped her brow as if she’d been running and worked up a sweat. Come to think of it, she looked flushed. Understanding hit, and he removed his hand immediately. She had no experience with the mating bond, and the sensations might easily overwhelm her.

  “I think Nathan is in his study. I’ll show you the way.” Her voice shook, but she retained her poise. He admired her plucky attitude and her grace. She might be a spoiled princess, as Callum liked to joke, but Rhyndor guessed deep down she had a backbone of steel holding her up.

  Following her through the house, he tried not to admire her pert behind or her lean legs. He had no right. Unlike Callum, he wasn’t sure what they were doing here half the time. Yes, he wanted her. How could he not? She’d been made as if purely for them, and them for her. He’d been on this earth so long he forgot h
is age. Hundreds of years had passed, and he’d never found anything so perfectly made for him as Lilly and Callum were. His previous bonded male he had shared only a platonic relationship with, close as it had been, so this was all new for him.

  He’d only bonded with the male because he’d been so desperate for a mate, and they’d found a female. But then tragedy struck, and she’d been taken from them, and then some war or other began. He’d honestly lost count of which war. Sadly, then he’d met Celine, and his whole life changed forever. He’d spent the following centuries suffering nothing but guilt for his actions, and half the time he wished himself dead. Much of the time, he tried to make it happen, truth be told. A dragon couldn’t kill himself, it was the ultimate insult to the gods, and you’d never reach Neffee, the Dragonea heaven. However, getting killed in a fight? That didn’t count, did it? So, he’d allowed himself to be beaten on a regular basis. Sadly, none of them finished him off and, for the longest time, he’d regretted the fact. But then Callum came along and damn well saved him. Callum had been his everything, and he’d have been happy with the two of them, until the fateful day they’d scented her. Lilly.

  Now, he found himself torn. Stuck between wanting to keep things the same—he’d gotten to a comfortable place at long last—and the biological urge to make Lilly his, which rode him hard. Very hard. Like another part of his anatomy at being so close to her.

  They reached a door, and Lilly rapped sharply on the wood twice.

  “Come in.”

  Nathan’s terse words made him sigh.

  He’d hoped to find the male in a better mood than earlier. Not that he blamed him. Steffan and Nathan were close, and Rhyndor had torn Steffan’s life apart. The idea of having to face the male and relive what he’d done made him want to vomit right there, all over the fancy plush carpet of the long hallway. But he’d either have to man up and face Steffan, for Lilly and Callum, or he’d find himself alone again. Because he had no doubt Callum wanted Lilly, and his disappointment in Rhyndor if he fucked this up would be too much.

  “Thank you.” He gave Lilly a small smile and got rewarded with one in return.

  She turned to walk away, paused, and put her small hand on his forearm. “Be careful. He’s still pissed.”

  Then she left, her gorgeous scent lingering after her in the air. Part of him wanted to tear down the hallway and throw her over his shoulder, but he stomped down the urge and turned the door handle.

  Nathan sat at a large, modern desk, tapping some numbers into a spreadsheet. Probably the clan wealth. He turned to see Rhyndor and frowned, before he shut the spreadsheet down by clicking on something else and bringing up a screen saver.

  “Where’s your bonded male?”

  “Your cousin is at the cottage. He doesn’t know I’m here.”

  Nathan grunted a response.

  Rhyndor screwed up his courage and began to speak. “I’m not good at this, Nate. Even Callum, who is hardly Oprah when it comes to the sharing, caring stuff, says I’m too locked down. This is hard. But I get how you must be feeling. I do.” He held his hand up when Nathan rolled his eyes and squared his jaw. “You and Steffan are good friends. I did a terrible thing, and for centuries, neither of you knew I did so against my will. Steffan might not care—he may still want me dead. Who knows how the male will react? And I won’t blame him if he tries to kill me.”

  “How noble.”

  Praying to the gods for patience…and the words he needed, Rhyndor took a slow breath in. “Look, you hate me. I get it.”

  Nathan stood and strode toward him. “I don’t hate you. Really, I don’t. I’m…fuck it. The truth is, I don’t need this shit. It’s going to be a ton of hassle I do not want, and I can’t see how it gets resolved without someone being hurt. And if this were simply me, you, and Steffan. I’d leave you two to fight it out, and if Steffan asked for my help, I’d be at his side. Whether you were put under a spell or not, you’ve never been a close friend to me, and he has. But it isn’t only you guys. This involves my mate’s sisters. Steffan is mated to Mia, and you guys match Lilly and you match her well. This is fucked up. I doubt the gods did this, as you guys seem to think. This is going to cause so much fucking shit. But…Mia is my family, Steffan is now my family, and if you get with Lilly, you’ll be my family. We somehow have to try to resolve things.”

  He perched on the edge of his desk and fixed Rhyndor with his dark gaze. “I know Steffan, though. Before he met Mia and Aiden, he only lived to get his revenge. He’s hated you forever. For centuries after you took his mates, he was broken. I mean pure, fucking broken, and now he’s not. For the first time in so long, he’s happy, and I risk blowing his peace apart.”

  The nauseated feeling rose once more in Rhyndor at Nathan’s stark reminder of what he’d done to one of his brethren, and he clenched his fists. He hated it. Hated he’d been weak enough to be enchanted by the vile fucking witch. His strength had been legendary, but he hadn’t been strong enough. A moment of emotional weakness, when the female he and his bonded male were to mate was found dead, and Celine stepped in and took advantage of the maelstrom of his mind. All his power, his physical strength, his own innate magic were nothing against the evil, dark enchantments she practiced.

  Weak, weak, weak. He remembered her laughing the words at him as she made him do so many terrible things. His suffering at what he’d done only enticed her to use him as her weapon more and more.

  The others she’d enchanted seemed to suffer no such pangs of conscience and simply did as she bade them. It seemed their easy capitulation bored her. She’d use them for the mundane jobs and save the vilest, cruelest tasks for him. To this day, he had no idea why she’d wanted Steffan’s mates dead. He’d only escaped her, when one day he’d somehow found the deepest reserves of strength and fought against her hold on him with everything he had. She’d left him alone for a long time, something she’d never done before. And without her presence and the sway she held over him, he’d been able to find that deep core of himself, the unique essence that made him Rhyndor. And he’d brought the flame of his power back to fucking life as he lay naked and chained against the slimy cave wall.

  Eventually, the bitch slinked back to the dank cave she kept him chained up in, and he’d managed to fool her into thinking he still did her bidding. The moment she took the chains from him, he attacked her. Burned her so badly, he didn’t know how she survived, but he knew she did. He felt her presence still, here on this earth. And it made his body run cold every time he let himself sense her. She’d been in hiding for the longest time, though, and he could only hope she’d stay that way.

  His head hurt and his heart ached. Did he deserve this chance with Lilly? Probably not, but Callum believed they were her best chance, and maybe in saving her, he’d redeem himself.

  “Hey.” Nathan interrupted his thoughts. “Go back and be with your male. I’ll call Steffan. Not today. I need to think how the hell I’m going to tell him this. I might ask him to come here with his mates and tell him then. Because if I tell him when he’s at his home, I can’t guarantee he won’t flip out and decide to get the whole Welsh clan on his side to come here and kill you. And believe me, Robert may be their leader, but Steffan is way more powerful and could have them eating out of the palm of his hand if he so wished.”

  Rhyndor nodded. He patted Nathan awkwardly on his upper arm and gave another nod.

  “Nate?” The door burst open, and Claire rushed in. “Do you have a…oh. Sorry. Didn’t realize you had company in here.”

  She looked from Rhyndor to Nathan and back again, her intelligent eyes taking them both in. She pursed her full lips and cocked her head to one side. “I think you should come for dinner this evening. You and Callum.”

  “What?” Nathan almost choked the word out.

  Rhyndor could only stare at the female in front of him. She’d gone mad, surely.

  “Yes, you’re our guests and also family. I mean, you’re with Nathan’s cousin, right?” />
  Rhyndor didn’t nod, so shocked was he by the turn of the conversation. “It means you’re sort of my cousin now. Through your bond. And I think it will do Lilly good. She’s met a lot of dragon males but no real contenders for her. And there’s this guy back home, a real piece of work. I do not want her running back to him the next time he snaps his fingers.” She turned to Nathan, who watched her with narrowed eyes. “Do you know? She told me he’s always leaving her, taking up with some other girl, and then coming back to her. And each time, she’s taken him back. She’s so strong in some ways and so sure of herself, but a lot of it is a façade. I don’t think her family environment has been at all healthy. Lots of material possessions but not a lot of love, if you ask me.”

  She stepped farther into the room, still chatting away, and blithely ignoring the daggers her mate shot at her, to focus on Rhyndor. “And I’m not saying anything must happen between you guys, but you’ve clearly got a great physical connection. It will be good for her to experience the true power of a dragon match. I still don’t think she gets it, you know? How different we are from humans. Because we are latents, she thinks we’re people with a couple of magic tricks. She won’t think so once she has to spend an evening with two powerful males who match her perfectly.”

  Neither he nor Nathan spoke. They both stared at her, him with wide eyes and Nathan with a steely glare.

  She clapped her hands. “Good, it’s settled, then. See you at eight, Rhyndor. See you in a while, my love.”

  A quick kiss on Nathan’s cheek and she strolled out of the room as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Wow. She’s something else.” Rhyndor smiled then, a genuine smile, and Nathan seemed to forget their history for a moment and returned the gesture.

  “She sure is. Gives me a headache sometimes, but I wouldn’t change her for anything. So…I suppose you’re coming for a meal tonight.”

  Yup, he supposed they were. Marvelous.

  Chapter Three