Lilly: Dragon Clan

by Skye Jones

  “It will rip our hearts out if she does. We’ll be fucked.”

  Callum stopped walking and placed his hand on Rhyndor’s arm. “We’ll still have one another, unless you do something stupid when you meet with Rhiannon. Something dangerous.”

  “Not planning on it, but I am going to help Steffan. Even if it does involve some risk to myself. I’ll not do so lightly and will be as careful as possible, but I won’t leave him with the damage I did to him.”

  Callum’s heart spasmed painfully, and for a moment, he fought against the urge to bend over and take in a couple of deep breaths. “I can’t lose you, Rhyn. I can’t. Her, I can let go because it will be what she wants. It’ll kill me, but I love her enough to do it…for her. But you? You’re risking everything for some sort of sense of honor.”

  “No.” Rhyndor shook his head. “It’s not for honor. It’s to stop this damn guilt eating me up inside so I can live fully at last.”

  “Come on, slow coaches.” Lilly shot them an amused look and put an extra wiggle into her hips as she walked ahead.

  Since the sex on the plane, she’d been more relaxed and flirtatious with them, but he didn’t fool himself that a bit of fun between them solved all their issues.

  Damn, he had everything he wanted within arm’s reach, but so much threatened it all.

  Chapter Ten

  Lilly yawned and stretched. One hard body lay to her left, and another to her right. She smiled and snuggled in closer to her two men. She’d started to think of them that way at some point in the last day or so. She still wanted to meet with Gwen and talk to her about the life a latent could lead outside of dragon society. She owed it to herself to explore all the possibilities thoroughly. But more and more, her heart wanted to be with these two men. No matter how sudden or rushed it might seem to her head.

  They hadn’t bonded yet—no way would she rush into such a step, but she had spent the nights with them. And they’d talked a lot, as well as other, more sensual activities.

  They fit together so well, not only physically but emotionally, too. Callum ever the cheeky joker, the crude one, the outgoing one, but she sensed his deeper side. Then Rhyndor with his soulful eyes and his serious side, but who possessed a wickedly dry sense of humor. And she could be quiet and geeky at times, yet playful and boisterous at others.

  Best of all, they never seemed to grow bored of touching her. And as someone who’d been starved of touch for much of her life, it meant her days were heavenly. Callum gave the best big old bear hugs, and Rhyndor held her tightly as he slept, spooning her and keeping her safe and warm.

  She’d forgiven her mother for a lot of what Lilly viewed as her cold behavior. It couldn’t have been easy for them, adopting her so late in her life. She’d already been a formed personality by the time she joined her new family. Not some malleable toddler or young babe. And then the knowledge they’d carried of her true nature, which they’d been sworn to keep secret from her. She understood only too well her mother’s need to protect her heart. She felt a similar urge herself when it came to the two beautiful men currently keeping her front and back warm as toast. She wouldn’t allow herself to do it, though. She’d be brave and experience it all, even if it hurt like hell if something went wrong. It seemed like the worst kind of crime to hold the love you felt back.

  Things with her father would take longer. He had no idea she knew about his other child, and she wasn’t going to tell him. It would take her time to forgive him for such a betrayal, not only of her, but of her mother too.

  “Hey, gorgeous.” Callum opened his eyes and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “You’re already awake.”

  “Yep, I’m meeting Gwen for the first time today.”

  They were staying in a guest house within the clan grounds in Wales. She’d been scared the first couple of days for Rhyndor’s safety in Steffan’s home village, but he’d been greeted warmly by all. Even Steffan treated him cordially. Mia had told her it would take her male some time to fully get over what Rhyndor had done, and Lilly couldn’t blame him, truthfully.

  She loved spending time with her sister and had grown fond of Aiden and Steffan, despite the issues between Steffan and her men. Today, she’d meet Gwen and have a talk with the young woman about her life living outside of dragon society. Wherever Lilly ended up, though, she knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to open an animal shelter, and she wanted it to be unique. She’d spent days drawing up plans and ideas and couldn’t wait to share it with the guys, but she wanted to wait until things were more settled between them. Until after she’d talked with Gwen.

  “Coffee?” Rhyndor breathed into her hair and ran his nose up her neck. She shivered at the lovely sensation and nodded.

  Rhyn squeezed her once then clambered out of bed. “You too, C?”

  He used the nickname for Callum every now and then, and for some reason, it always amused her.

  Callum cracked his jaw on a massive yawn and nodded. “Love one.”

  Rhyndor threw on a robe and padded out of the room.

  “He meets with Rhiannon later today. I’m worried sick.” Callum rarely shared his worries, and the fact that he did so now scared her some.

  “It’ll be okay, though, right?”

  He looked at her and didn’t give her an answer. Instead, his amber eyes darkened with sorrow, and she rubbed her stomach where she suddenly became aware of nausea.

  “I fear he’ll push too far to do the right thing and harm himself.”

  She’d hope and pray he didn’t. Perhaps she ought to talk with Rhyndor. Tell him her feelings, how she wanted to stay? It might change his mind about doing this for Steffan. Then again, who did she think she was? He loved Callum deeply and still intended to do this, so she doubted her words would have any effect. And she owed it to herself to meet Gwen today and talk with her so she possessed all the facts before she made up her mind.

  Placing a soft kiss on Callum’s gorgeous lips, she forced a smile onto her face. “He’ll be okay, I can feel it. Don’t worry. I’m going to get a quick shower. I have to be at Kate’s by ten to talk with Gwen.”

  He sighed but nodded, and she got out of bed feeling like shit for some reason, as if she should do more. But, what? She didn’t want to give false assurances or promises she didn’t one hundred percent know she’d keep.

  Her shower didn’t assuage her niggling sense of guilt or the increasingly heavy sensation of foreboding creeping over her, seeping into her very bones and weighing her down.

  After a rushed breakfast and some delicious coffee, she found herself outside Kate’s home, nervous and unsure.

  Kate opened the door before she had a chance to knock.

  “Well, hello there, Lilly. Do come in.”

  She’d met with Kate and Rhiannon a couple of times now and found them two of the warmest people she’d ever come across.

  Kate ushered her into the house. “I’ve set up a tray with tea and some cakes and biscuits in the living room.”

  She followed the woman through her home and into a welcoming lounge, and she recognized Gwen immediately from the description she’d been given.

  She sat on the sofa, her light blond corkscrew curls shining in the morning sunlight. Her pretty face broke into a grin when she saw Lilly. “Time for our talk, eh?”

  Lilly nodded, suddenly unsure what to say.

  “Come sit by me.” Gwen patted the sofa next to her. She wore an off the shoulder, white cotton top with embroidery around the edges and tight pale blue jeans tucked into ankle boots. She was curvy, toned, and gorgeous. Gold hoop earrings shone in her small lobes, and a chunky gold and turquoise ring glinted on one finger. Gold stacking bangles jangled on her arm.

  Her style was bohemian and casual, but sexy and stylish at the same time. Effortless.

  She wiggled her feet and toed off her boots, tucking her legs under her, and Lilly crossed to sit by her.

  “So…you want to hear what life’s like outside of dragon society for a latent?�
�

  She nodded. Gwen watched her with shrewd eyes. “Well, let me say first, it’s different for me. I don’t have any males I match. Or, not to the degree you do. There were two a few years ago, but the match proved weak, and I didn’t want to pursue it.”

  “But you did match them and still walked away. Why?”

  Gwen smiled at her, displaying a perfect row of small white teeth. “My mum lives outside the clans, so it’s the way I’ve been brought up. The males I matched with, they were traditional. I’d have been stuck inside a clan forever, no offense, Kate.”

  The older woman smiled. “None taken, and I’m going to leave you ladies to talk. I’ll be upstairs if you need anything. Simply shout.”

  “Thank you,” Lilly said.

  “So… You didn’t want to be stuck in a clan.” Lilly brought the conversation right back around to the matter at hand.

  Gwen shuddered. “Gods, no. I am used to being free, doing what I want. Traveling. Mum and I go all over the place. She’s an artist, quite well-known. I’m into surfing and traveling and learning about new cultures and places. We’re due to spend the rest of the winter in California and then spring in Cornwall. After that, not sure. Mum loves the light in places like Cornwall, California, and Greece.”

  She paused and took a sip of her tea. “I like humans, too. Some Dragonea don’t. Nathan, for example, your other sister’s mate, doesn’t have a high opinion of them. But I like them. I find the shortness of their life makes a lot of them passionate. They take pleasure in the flesh, in eating and drinking and fucking.”

  Lilly flushed at Gwen’s words. Her two men certainly seemed to have the taking pleasure in the fucking part of the equation figured out. As if understanding her thoughts, Gwen smiled. “Ah, but you see, it’s only this way because you match. If you didn’t, it wouldn’t be the same. Dragons need the match for sex to be amazing. Otherwise, it’s kind of like scratching an itch, nice…pleasant, but nothing like what you’ll have experienced.”

  Lilly didn’t tell her that, apart from the first time, they had not had actual sex since. They’d messed around a lot, but the guys didn’t want to take it any further until she knew what she wanted. Said it might push things too far. It irritated her at times, especially when she was burning up with lust, but she understood.

  “Dragon folk are…I don’t know, sort of Zen I suppose. We don’t tend to binge on food or get drunk off our heads. We don’t get lost in the sins of the flesh in the same way humans do, and I’m convinced it’s to do with their short life span. After all, when you live for hundreds, or in rare cases, thousands of years, time holds a different meaning.”

  Lilly swallowed hard. She still had not gotten used to the idea that she might live for hundreds of years. Some of these dragons were seriously old. And Rhyndor was one of them. It completely freaked her out to think he’d been roaming his earth so long he hardly even knew his age anymore. And he looked all of thirty-five! She shook her head.

  Gwen laughed and dragged her attention back. “I find I quite enjoy experiencing these fleeting pleasures with the humans. I’ll be blunt. I like to party and drink and sometimes smoke, and I sometimes have sex. Hot, sweaty, filthy sex with human men who do it because their shitty lives are so short and tragic. Guess it makes me kind of sick or something? But I enjoy living amongst them. My mother and I move around a lot and will continue to do so, in order for our lack of aging not to become evident. But we have a good life. We’re best friends. Confidantes. She’s more like my sister than my mother, and of course, she adopted me. As a fellow latent, she can’t have biological kids of her own. We’re a wonderful team, and I don’t see any need to change it. But…”

  She trailed off, and Lilly prompted her. “But?”

  “I don’t want to sway you, but if I found the sort of match you have? Then I can’t say I’d make the same decisions I do now. I like pleasure, as I’ve already explained. And I can’t imagine a greater pleasure than being with two males who match me so perfectly. I’ve heard it’s like a drug, an addiction. Is it?”

  Her eyes were bright as she watched Lilly, and Lilly realized she may have come for advice, but Gwen wanted to know about her life, too.

  “It’s as if I’m ravenous or so, so thirsty, and only Callum and Rhyndor can stop the ache.” She frowned. “Kate and Rhiannon have told me it should ease in time if I decide not to stay with them, but I’m not sure I want it to.”

  “You’ve a huge decision to make, but it’s easier in some ways for you than it was for your sister Claire. Your males don’t live a stiff and formal clan life. You wouldn’t be stuck up in the mountains for centuries. You’d be living a varied life. Best of both worlds in many ways. But, of course, once you commit to them, it’s forever. Your souls merge, and I have to be honest, that bit scares me to death.”

  Lilly, too. It was the one thing she kept coming back around to. Mia explained what happened to her, how it occurred without her knowledge or consent, and Lilly found the story both terrifying and exhilarating. Wanted it and wanted to run far from it at the same time.

  She didn’t know these men. Not deep down. Her knowledge of them lay in the way their bodies felt together, how she reacted to the touch of their flesh to hers. The look in their eyes when they saw her. The way their scent hit her in the gut every single time. She both knew them intimately and didn’t know them at all.

  She couldn’t say what Rhyndor’s favorite food was or if Callum liked old movies, whether or not they had any phobias or secret fears. What made them laugh, what pissed them off? She’d been learning, but she’d only been with them a short time. She’d swear they were both good men. Decent men. And she knew, soul deep, they’d never hurt her. Would protect her with their dying breath, but that came back to the weird biological trick of their perfect bond. What if she found them insufferable after one hundred years in their company? She couldn’t get her head around living for such a long time, never mind being with the same people for it.

  After having a long chat with Gwen, she wandered back to the house they’d been staying in and grinned when Mia opened the door. Steffan was with her, and he looked damn serious. Rhyn stood to one side, a strange, calmly happy expression on his face, but Callum’s tense jaw told another story.

  Not sure what was going on, she flicked her gaze from one face to the other.

  “Hey, sis.” Mia wrapped her in a warm hug. Lilly loved having a sister; it never got old, and she doubted it ever would.

  “What’s going on?” She pulled away and glanced at the men again.

  “We’re organizing the healing session to try to rid Steffan of the poison in his leg.” Rhyndor gave her a small smile.

  “Ah.” It explained Callum’s deathly countenance.

  “And.” Mia clapped her hands together. “Tonight, we have a feast. Robert has decreed it, kind of on Steffan’s orders.” She giggled. “And you’re going to get to fly with a dragon.”

  “What?” Oh no. Watch, yes. But not fly with them. How?

  As if reading her mind, Mia continued. “There’s two ways. Informal, where you kind of bareback it and have some reins to hold on to, or the formal, where you ride in a ceremonial chair. The formal feels safer, the informal is way cooler.”

  “You ride the dragons… Of course.” She’d forgotten Claire’s promise from her early days at the Scottish clan.

  Rhyndor nudged her foot with his. “I want you to ride my dragon, to be up there with me when I’m in my dragon form. You’ll be safe. I’d never let anything happen to you.”

  “I’ll be there, too,” Callum added. “You’ll be totally safe.”

  Nerves squirmed in her belly, nipping like little fish at her and making her stomach hurt. “I don’t know, guys. I mean…”

  She’d never seen her guys in their dragon form. It might put her off, hit home too hard how strange and unreal all this was.

  “Sis, it’s a blast. Trust me. I won’t steer you wrong.”

  Something told her Mia
would indeed steer her wrong if she got the chance. She seemed more impulsive and daring in some ways compared to Claire, which was surprising given Claire’s previous trade as an MMA fighter. Mia grinned at her. “I’ll come around this afternoon, bring some vodka, and we’ll have a small drink. Loosen up those nerves. Once the sun goes down, we’ll go meet the guys out by the edge of the mountain plateau where it drops down to the valley.”

  She pecked Lilly on the cheek. “Trust me.”

  Famous last words. Lilly watched Mia and Steffan go with a heavy heart as she thought of the possible danger facing Rhyndor from their plan to heal Steffan.

  “Hey.” The man in question tipped her chin up to meet his gaze. “You don’t have to ride tonight if you’re scared.”

  She smiled at his misunderstanding her concern, but she didn’t correct him. She wanted to talk to Callum about her worries, alone. Instead, she forced her smile wider and patted his arm. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” She suddenly meant it, as the possibility of losing Rhyndor hit her hard.

  Her heart ached and burned at the idea. She swallowed down the need to rub a soothing hand over the center of her chest and tried to calm the horrible uneasiness stealing over her.

  The rest of the day, Lilly spent reading. She didn’t get a chance to talk to Callum alone as he and Rhyndor were going over their investments. The guys had serious money, she realized as they talked. Way more than her parents or Zach and his family. Not that she cared how much money they had hidden away. They could be paupers for all it mattered. But it did make one thing easier. She wanted to set up a shelter. It had been niggling away at her since she contemplated leaving her home to be with the two men. She’d miss the dogs and the friends she’d made there. But more than anything, she’d realized, she’d miss the work she did and the good it contributed.

  If they did indeed make a go of this strange but wonderful relationship, she had one request. Wherever they ultimately decided to settle, she wanted to ask the guys to loan her some of the start-up money for a new shelter. She’d employ a qualified manager, as she didn’t fool herself into believing she could do it all. She didn’t know enough. But she knew she wanted it to be caring and bright and clean, but more than anything, comfortable. She wanted blankets and toys in the dogs’ cages. Soft lighting, not the strip lighting of the shelter back home. And she wanted lots of volunteers to spend time with the animals and to set up a network of foster carers, so as many dogs as possible stayed in a home environment between their assessment and adoption. She’d always felt more comfortable with animals than humans, and maybe now she had a clue as to why. She was part animal herself. Part human, too, and part something preternatural and powerful. The more she got used to the idea, the more she liked it.