The Dragon's Woman (Elemental Dragons Book 3)

by Emilia Hartley

  That was the most she’d interacted with the usually calm and collected dragon man. But, Noelle knew she’d been watching him. Part of her must have known what he was to her. It’d taken a long time for her to figure it out, to even come to terms with the idea. She’d watched him board the plane to Wales and felt oddly alone. Noelle had stood beside Luc as he screamed for his brother upon their return and felt herself crumple inside. Noelle had watched her mate stagger out of the woods with lightning bruises snaking across his skin and felt her stomach flip.

  ***

  Marc was trying his hardest to lose himself in a book while his mind raced miles per minute. Images of the photo Anya stole from the local facility kept turning over in his mind. He’d gone back and found the picture of his mother, squirming on the table as they had her pinned down. Now, she was back in their hands for whatever reason.

  Marc was moments away from throwing the book across the room with a growl when there was a knock at the door. Marc shot up from his seat only to find his stomach sink. Hector Avila stood in the doorway, his shoulders drooping and a look of sorrow etched into the lines of his face.

  The dragon man shouldn’t have shown such signs of aging. Hector was older than Dane, but their dragon magic kept them looking young for centuries. Hector looked older than the earth itself in that moment. The world had pushed this man through trial after trial, reducing him to the withered stalk that stood before Marc. His heart should have ached for his father, but all Marc could find was hatred and anger.

  “Can I… Could I come in?” He fidgeted with the buttons on his coat.

  He’d clearly let himself into the house already. Luc was at the lake house with Anya and Isaac was knee deep in another city on Quinn’s heels. Was it the new quiet of the house that was driving Marc mad? He’d been so used to Luc and Isaac’s pranks disturbing every moment of silence that he’d grown accustomed to it.

  “Why not?” Marc fell back down into his seat. He was only counting the moments until he and Noelle could visit the guy who could get them fake IDs for their mission. She’d gone to lunch with Dane’s mate and hadn’t yet returned, making Marc want to tear the house apart with his impatience.

  Hector slowly set one foot into the room as if afraid Marc might lash out at any moment. When he didn’t, Hector chanced another step forward and then another until he was standing awkwardly beside a chair. Marc motioned for the man to sit down.

  That’s all he was. Hector wasn’t the father he remembered, but just another man in the world.

  “What changed?” Marc asked, suddenly getting to the point of his frustration. “You were a strong man with his head on his shoulders. You didn’t let anything in the world throw you off. Now, you’re hiding among this family instead of doing what is right. Tell me, what changed?”

  Hector looked down at Marc. They both knew the answer to his question was one that might take hours to explain, but Marc looked as though he’d gladly trade his time to appease the anger he felt. Hector nodded and sank into the chair across from Marc.

  “I’d like to ask why the other family came before us. I’d like to ask why you specifically forbade Luc and me from visiting when your family first revealed themselves to the world. I won’t ask either of those questions. All I want to know is the point in time that changed you from the man I once knew to the coward I’m looking at.”

  Marc knew his words were cutting, but it was the only way he could speak to Hector. It was all he had, the bare bones of emotion and a deep desire to understand. That was all he asked. Marc wanted to know if he, too, would have crumbled the way his father had. He wanted to understand if Hector’s decisions had been correct.

  “I guess I could start at the beginning,” Hector said as he held Marc’s gaze. The man didn’t turn away from the anger in his son’s gaze. Perhaps he thought he deserved it. “The night the Guardians came for us, your mother and I saw them coming. We knew there was little we could do to avoid the Guardians so we caused a diversion. It drew the Guardians and their technology, their cages, toward us and away from the two of you.”

  Marc opened his mouth to say that he didn’t ask for the whole story, but Hector held his hand up for him to wait. This was a story Hector realized he’d been waiting decades to share. He wished Luc was here, too, but his other son had different priorities. Luc also didn’t seem to burn the way his twin did. Hector imagined his children would have reacted differently, assumed opposite reactions. He never really knew them at all.

  “Your mother and I fought against the Guardians. We wanted to get back to you at any cost. In the end, they trapped both of us in cages lined with silver. Your mother… she did something foolish while the Guardians were transporting us. She told me she loved me and then she kicked my cage off their transport truck. It seemed they hadn’t thought to strap my cage down properly.

  “It took a long while to free myself. I was weak and angry, a horrible combination as I felt utterly useless. Once free, I should have gone directly back to you and your brother. My beast told me you were young and capable boys. It told me that I needed to look out for my mate and pulled me toward her. There was no denying the voice inside my head as it poured its energy into my weakened body. It gained full control and took me wherever it wished.”

  Marc’s lips pulled back from his teeth. He leaned forward in his seat. “We were starving while you let your beast control you. Luc and I turned into petty thieves, surviving off gas station beef jerky and donuts until Dane found us.”

  Hector’s eyes closed. Marc could see the heavy, dark bags beneath his father’s eyes and how they dragged him toward the ground. Hector knew, he felt the shame of what he’d done. He carried it with him in the lines etched into his face and dark circles beneath his eyes.

  “Like I said, I know what I should have done, but I cannot change what I did. I went after your mother because she was my mate. You will understand when you find your own mate in this world.”

  Marc thought of his fiery dragon woman. No one would hold Noelle against her wishes. She was a tempest, a force to be reckoned with that Marc wouldn’t worry about. No, she could hold her own. Just like his mother did.

  “I followed the truck carrying your mother. She was a bright creature…”

  Marc cut him off. “She is a bright creature. Don’t talk about her in the past tense. She’s still alive and you know it.”

  “Son,” Hector beseeched Marc. “Your mother… she isn’t who she used to be. When they first took her, she still had her mind. She was smart enough to figure out how to smuggle young dragons out of the facility that held her. That was what kept me there, the dragons she sent to me for protection. But, over time… after the experiments, Lucia started to lose herself to the beast inside her. I don’t know if Lucia gave up or if it was to protect herself, but the beast became a… monster. Lucia is more that creature than the mother you knew.”

  Marc wanted to throw his chair across the room. His father was naïve. It was mind boggling, comparing what he’d gone through in his lifetime to what Marc had witnessed. He’d seen the color of his mother’s scales as she tried to rip the GOE building apart. He’d heard Dane and Liana’s whispers. Both of them had garnered black scales through the hardships in their lives.

  It was clear that Liana had only recently come to terms with the monster now squatting inside of her. It was ferocious and blood thirsty, a thing Marc had seen first-hand when she’d ripped a white dragon’s throat out. Marc had an idea of what his mother was going through, but no one had been there to help her through it. He sometimes wondered if finding two half-starved Quetzalcoatl dragon boys had been what Dane needed to step back from the monster.

  “I am going to find her with or without your help,” Marc informed his father as he forced himself to calmly stand. “Then, when she is safe, we will help her find balance with the monster her beast became. There are those in our family who have gone through the same challenge and survived to thrive.”

  Hector scoffe
d. “Boy, I do not think you understand what it takes to darken a dragon’s scales and the effect that kind of torture has on a mind.”

  A laugh rang through the room, bright and bitter. Father and son turned to find Luc leaning against the door frame. He kept his hands in his pockets, but Marc could see the tension that made his muscles vibrate. Luc wanted to throttle their father, too. The second twin pushed off the door frame and entered the room to stand beside his brother.

  “Remember the black dragon that caused some chaos off the eastern border a month ago?” Luc asked Hector almost too casually.

  The man’s brows knit together, revealing the deep lines of his forehead. “Sure, it destroyed a farm and flew over a nearby town. I sent out a search party to see if we could bring the beast into our family and help it recover what could be recovered.”

  Marc snorted. He had yet to see Liana stand face to face with the so-called leaders of the nomadic family, but both of the twins knew she would have a lot to say about the way they’d conducted themselves, both on behalf of the Embassy and the safety of their people.

  “The dragon was Dane’s mate. She was baiting another dragon hurting raiders and squatters on the border of our Territory. Liana has full control of the monster inside her as does Dane.”

  Hector looked between his boys with disbelief. It seemed as though he’d convinced himself his wife would always be a monster. There was no saving her, in his mind, only living with who she’d become. Neither Marc nor Luc knew how long Lucia had lived with the monster or how much of their mother they might be able to recover.

  Finally, after a long moment of digesting his thoughts and emotions, Hector released a sigh the brothers thought he might have been holding for forty years. His face brightened with relief and some of the lines on his face softened. There was a shimmer of hope in the man’s eyes that had been dark before.

  “I will warn you,” Hector said, the glimmer of hope becoming dull. “Your mother told me during one of her better moments that she would rather die than be taken by GOE again.”

  Marc’s heart nearly stopped. The room seemed to press in on him from all sides as he struggled to process what Hector told them. Marc swallowed hard before he could speak again.

  “She might not…”

  Hector reached out and laid his hands on his son’s shoulders. The touch was grounding and familiar. Here was a glimpse of the man he’d once been, the figure both boys had looked up to.

  “I said that only to issue a warning. In reality, I doubt the Guardians would allow Lucia to hurt herself. She’s still alive. The bond tells me it is so, but it also tells me she is not well.”

  Marc wanted to spring into action. He wanted to run and find Noelle. Her lunch date seemed so silly when he remembered where his mother was being held. They needed to do something. It needed to happen now.

  “Calm down,” Luc snapped at his brother.

  Marc’s eyes jerked toward the sound. Seeing Luc’s face grounded him. Together they could face anything. Together, they had faced everything from starvation to a white dragon uprising.

  Chapter Three

  Noelle led Marc through the narrow streets in her blocky car. It was old, per human standards, and comprised nearly entirely of metal that clanked and groaned with every small hole in the street. It was a much older model of the Jeep Anya drove around. Marc thought it funny that both of the twins’ mates drove Jeeps.

  “Where are you taking me?” Marc grumbled.

  Noelle threw him a sidelong glance that clearly said shut up. Marc wasn’t in the mood for her dominance plays and repeated his question with more force. She finally sighed and pulled the vehicle off the road.

  “Just because I asked you a damn question doesn’t mean you have to pull over.”

  Noelle laughed. “I didn’t pull over because you asked a question. We’re here.”

  Marc’s head perked up. He peered past the glass and into the night darkness beyond. It was punctuated by small streetlights, most attached to buildings to deter would-be robbers. The world around them was paved with chipping pavement and the buildings were all leaning one way or another.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “What did you expect? A nice, clean neighborhood and a mid-morning visit?” Noelle had spent more time off the Territory than Marc had. He’d been content to lose himself in the adventure of books, but Noelle had missed the outside world. She’d missed the music the most, Marc figured. He could tell from the old record player taking up much of the tiny space in her home and the way she blasted it in the dead of night.

  He didn’t tell her he sometimes stayed up late to listen with her. Once he knew she was his mate, he wanted to know everything about her. Yet, he knew getting too close to the beast would be risking bloodshed, so he often learned about his mate through the music she listened to when she thought no one was looking.

  He longed for her on the nights she played Fleetwood Mac. He ached to hold her on the nights she played Metallica. There had been times when mystery vinyl records had appeared on her doorstep. She’d left them on the tiny porch until she realized they weren’t going anywhere. Soon enough, Marc heard his music selections playing in the dead of night. It made him feel a little closer to the woman desperate to belong to someone else.

  Sure, she’d explained why she’d been so desperate to belong to Dane, why she defied him when she realized it would never happen, but that didn’t make the ache in Marc’s chest any lesser.

  “Are you getting out of the car?” Noelle snapped with her door partially open. Her hand rested on the handle as if she, too, wasn’t ready to exit the sanctuary of the jeep.

  Marc saw her face highlighted by the Jeep’s interior lights. The glow of the world outside the Jeep softened the shadows and made his mate seem impossibly young. She was older than him, he suspected. The tale she wove to settle his anger definitely hinted at it, a story starting in a time when the States were still young and moving through the years as she faced the hardest times of her life.

  Marc did something he knew she might resent him for. He quickly leaned forward and captured her mouth. The gear shift between them dug into his ribs, but he couldn’t care less. Her lips parted with surprise and he slipped his tongue through. She tasted better than he imagined as he flicked her tongue with his own.

  She surprised him. Her fingertips touched the edge of his stubble covered jaw, gently gripping his face to hold him where he was as her teeth nipped his lower lip. Her nails raked down the front of his throat and stirred things inside of Marc that were not appropriate for the inside of the Jeep. At least, not space wise.

  Then, Noelle pulled back. Her hand on his breastbone held him in place, pushing back when he pressed forward. He ached for more. His hands twitched with the need to hold her, to pull her into his body, but Marc leaned back and shoved his emotions and desires down into the well of calm he’d cultivated. He could wait, he reminded himself. He’d waited for over ten years. He could wait a bit longer.

  Noelle pressed her lips together and her eyes danced along everything that was not Marc. The need made his gut clench, sharp and sudden, but he refused to act on it.

  His mate was not young or inexperienced, not if that kiss was any indication. She was hardened by the world. He loved that she was his, the mate the universe saw fit to stand by him in the long years to come. He did not have to worry about the frailty of a human mate.

  “Get your ass out of my car,” she snapped before sliding out and disappearing into the night.

  “Are you ever going to be nice to anyone in your life?”

  “I’m nice to Liana and Miri,” she countered as he slid out of the passenger seat.

  He snorted. “You weren’t very nice to Liana when she first arrived and Miri is a child. I’d hope you would be nice to a child.”

  Noelle shrugged, just a dark shape in the night. “People earn respect through their actions. Liana earned it when she defeated the dragon that killed Miri’s family.”
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  “And, what about me? Will I ever earn your respect?”

  Noelle opened her mouth to reply then snapped it shut again. She turned to face the path ahead of them, taking a long moment before she spoke. “You’ve always had my respect.”

  Marc cast a sidelong glance at his mate. Perhaps he had earned her respect. She’d never treated him with the ire she’d shown much of the rest of their family. Instead, her words held much of the playfulness that Luc’s pranks often did. They might end disastrously, but they were always meant in jest.

  Marc could only laugh at the idea that he was mated to the female version of his brother. It wasn’t that they were similar in the kind of people they were, but that they filled the world with sound if only so that they couldn’t hear the roaring silence in their own ears. They joked and teased those around them, those they loved, in ways that weren’t easy to understand at first. Noelle’s words might have been rough, but they were always said with humor.

  Without thinking, Marc’s hand reached out and grasped Noelle’s. It was small and nearly fragile feeling in his grip. He’d never tell her that, of course. Instead, he gripped it so that she might not escape his touch just yet. It seemed as if, maybe, she didn’t want to escape it yet.

  ***

  Noelle let Marc hold her hand in the night. It was such a small gesture. No one would notice under the guise of the night.

  Yet, she didn’t understand her desire to hide this small token of affection. What was she so afraid of? She’d spent years trying to become another dragon’s mate and when she found her own, she wanted to deny it. She hadn’t even loved Dane.

  What was wrong with her?

  She didn’t deserve Marc. That was one thing she knew. Noelle knew what she was, a reality she’d been trying to come to terms with since she entered the American Territory family. She was not brave or selfless. She was selfish and weak. She’d failed her little sister. She’d failed her family.