“Oh, that’s funny,” Abyle said. “I always fancied a wolf skin for my wall, but I don’t like fleas.” Two could play that game. If the wolf wanted to be funny, let the fun begin.
The wolves behind Kellen slowly moved backward as their alpha retracted his claws. Abyle waited for Atika to follow suit then he did as well, iron claws retracting. The air, which had become thick with the impending brawl, eased.
“Alright, since y’all have finished with the pissing contest, you coming inside for a drink or what?” a pretty red-haired female asked from the doorway.
Kellen lifted his eyes to the sky. “Didn’t I tell you to head to the safe room, Lake?”
The woman named Lake lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I did. Head there, I mean, and then my wolf said, ‘Not today, sister.’ So, I came back in here and waited for y’all to whip your dicks out, or whatever you were gonna do. Turo had my back.” She pointed over her shoulder.
“I had her and Jozyln covered. If shit went south, I’d have made sure they were safe.” The male who must be Turo held a gun that would make a sizeable hole in even their bear hide. Sheot, they would need to watch their backs and fronts around that one.
“I need a fucking drink. Come on in. Nobody will fuck with you.” Kellen pinned the crowd with a warning glare, daring any of them to say a word otherwise.
Abyle recognized an alpha order, not that it affected him since Kellen wasn’t his alpha, but he could see the wolves, and even the little female bear, submitting to the male. All except the one who had stood behind Kellen. Abyle made a mental note to watch his back around the male named Xan. If he was strong enough and he wasn’t governed by an alpha order, then he could be a challenge.
Both he and Atika waited until the pack filed in, leaving only Kellen holding the door. “After you,” he said to Kellen.
Kellen’s slight twitch of his lips could’ve been a smile. “As long as you don’t start any trouble, there won’t be any inside my club.”
It was a promise and a warning. One Abyle took as an oath. “We only came to find our mate.”
Kellen snorted what Abyle thought sounded like a curse, but he let it slide seeing as he was in the other male’s territory searching for Lula and all.
“Bears in wolves territory trying to find their lost mate. Does she have blonde hair and like honey?”
The question came from the male who hadn’t feared the alpha. Abyle eyed the other male up and down, thinking of all the ways he could and would kill him, slowly. “She will like only our honey.” Sheot, had his voice came out more rumbling growl than human?
“Boys, calm the fuck down or you will all be wearing a bow on your head.”
A female with blonde-and-pink hair came forward, passing a little baby with...a bow as big as her head, to Xan.
The big bad wolf smiled down at the child. “You are never going to date, and when you do, it will be to a nice wolf who is scared of Uncle Xan. Ain’t that right?”
“Sure, she’s gonna be just like her mama.”
“Do not even say that shit. Look what you did.” Xan lifted his chin toward a male standing off to the side appearing as though he would take on the entire world for the little girl and his female.
“In that we agree, Xan. My daughter is never mating.”
“Rowan Shade, you and my brother are not going to do this to our daughter.”
Abyle felt as though his head was bouncing back and forth in a tennis match. “Wolves,” he roared.
When all eyes turned toward him, he stood straighter. “Shut up and tell me where our female is. She’s about this tall.” He put his right hand to his chest, then moved it down a little. She was a tiny little thing. “She’s the most gorgeous creature to ever walk the Earth, although from what we’ve been informed by our brother, who we are not talking to at this moment, she’s not actually from Earth.”
Atika bumped his shoulder. “What he’s trying to say is she’s beyond anything you can imagine, with pink hair, and smells like cotton candy. My mouth waters just thinking of her.”
He bumped his brother back when he realized he was actually licking his lips in a room full of wolves. “Calm the fuck down. You don’t need to have a hard-on in front of all these people.”
As the words left his mouth, several things became apparent. One, the wolves had gone silent. Two, the females had all been moved to the back of the room with their babies. Three, the males all appeared to be preparing for a battle.
If they thought to keep Lula from them, they had a hard truth coming for them. Bring it, motherfuckers.
Lula materialized outside the Dragon Realm. Her heart was heavy after seeing all her friends happy and bringing new life into the world, something she didn’t think she’d ever get to do. “A dragon mating two bears?” she whispered. There would be no babies for her. She didn’t think a dragon female could...do that, not with any other species than her own.
Through the Mist that separated the Fey Realm from the one where her mother’s people lived, she could barely make out the towering mountains. She had always wondered how her life would’ve been had she been born on the other side of the Mist. Would she have already been mated to a dragon, with little dragonlings of her own?
She shook her head, feeling as if she betrayed her mother and all she’d sacrificed for her. Through the Mist, her own image reflected back at her. The sight of her long pink hair mocking in its existence. Sure, she could color it like humans did, but it would immediately revert to the natural shade of cotton-candy pink. Whatever in her DNA caused her and her mother’s scales to be pink, not the royal color of their house, made them outcasts. Her mother could’ve stayed in the Dragon Realm, could’ve mated with one of the lesser houses, but she’d fallen for a prince. They’d mated and she’d gotten pregnant with Lula. If only Lula would’ve favored his house, not come out even lighter on the pink scale then Belle, she could’ve finished the mating. She could’ve become queen and been with the man, the dragon she loved. Instead, she ran and hid for thousands of years, keeping Lula and her existence hidden and safe.
“And look at me. I’m risking it all because I’m a little crybaby who wishes for things she shouldn’t.” She swiped away a tear. Through the Mist she saw a black dragon, or at least he appeared black in the distance, swooping over the tallest mountain.
In her mother’s journal, she’d described her one-and-only love and how his scales had made him unique. Belle had said he’d had gleaming black scales with iridescent purple and blue hues throughout his many layers. She could picture the big dragon in the distance having the same appearance. With a huff she turned her back on the Mist, letting her own dragon take over, the change from human to dragon instant. Although she felt a pang at the loss of parts of herself, the small slivers she’d gifted to others, she didn’t allow it to slow her down as she took to the sky, heading back to the Fey Realm. She released a blast of fire, feeling free to do so there without worry of burning the world to a crisp. No here, in the In-Between, she was safe to breathe her dragon fire.
The black dragon moved fast, charging toward the Mist, his large size taking him closer to the in-between realms. He’d felt a connection to a lost part of himself, making him curious. He landed on the ground, making a sizeable crack on the surface. Never in all his thousands of years had he ventured onto this side of the Dragon Realm, but a yearning, almost as if his soul was being torn from his body, had made him continue flying until he’d found himself circling the desolate lands. “What could it be that calls me to this place?” he wondered.
A chill went over his scales as he thought he saw light pink fill his sight. The last time he’d seen the most beautiful thing, his one and only love, his spirit had climbed. He’d been so sure their souls had aligned, his heart had sprouted wings as if it had felt hers, soaring into the sky, only to plummet when she’d disappeared without a trace, taking his light and love with her. Everything he’d ever desired was gone, in one moment, one careless act, gone, just
like she was.
He raised his snout to the sky, roaring the remembered pain, the betrayal at her and her loss. “Why did you leave me, Belle?” he roared, fire spewing from him. Before the embers fell to the ground, he took to the sky, flying back to his home, away from the memories of his loss, of what could’ve been.
Just before he rose over the mountain, he dared to take one last glimpse back, catching a glimmer through the Mist of a pink dragon, but not his pink dragon, not Belle, but a lighter one. One who made his cold heart warm. Fire flew from her, pain in the form of a blazing arc. A connection snapped into place. His dragon recognized the pink dragon as theirs. “A child. My child is alive,” he rumbled.
His dragon roared again, instinct that had pulled him to that Mist had him reaching for a link he’d felt snap thousands of years ago, a bond his family said couldn’t happen because she wasn’t worthy. He’d been young and foolish, and he’d listened. The heartache and betrayal on Belle’s face were ones he’d always remember. They’d been a true bond. Something the dragon elders said hadn’t happened in eons, yet he and Belle’s souls had weaved together. Now, he knew it had been deeper. A child. Had she been carrying their child? A pink dragon like herself?
The ramifications of what that would mean for him and his house had him pulling up short. Dragons prided their royal status on many things, their scales being one. He was King of Dragons because of his midnight scales. Having iridescent coloring meant he had more power than any others, just as his father had before him. His twin had been almost identical to him, except in dragon form. He had been a treacherous fool, unwilling to share the throne as they’d been born to do. Now, the elders were urging him to mate with a female who would complement his house, but he had no want for another. Of course, he had taken many lovers throughout the years, but none had his heart. His twin brother, rot his soul in hell, had tried to kill him many times. The last had been brutal and bloody; many lives had been lost. Even the female who had sworn her love to the bastard, only to try and seduce him. Foolish dragon, she should’ve realized he’d known all along she was playing games. Too bad his brother hadn’t comprehended that reality. Or maybe he had and used her to try and overthrow him. “It matters not, for he is dead by my claws.”
At one time, he might’ve felt remorse for killing his own kin, but that time was long past. The brother he’d grown up with, learned to fly and fight with, had changed into a beast their parents hadn’t recognized. In the last several hundred years, they’d vowed he needed a female to temper him. His brother had done his damnedest to show he’d been tempered. However, behind that mask, he’d been sadistic to his core. As his twin, he should’ve recognized the signs, should’ve felt his brother becoming twisted to the point of evil. But he hadn’t, not until the female came. After his own Belle had left him. He was broken, had no want of another. His family thought he needed to get back on the dating train, so to speak. None understood the connection was more than just physical, although that had been something he couldn’t describe.
When it came time for him to take the title of his house, there were murmurs he needed a queen. He was brutal and deadly. That was what they needed for a king, not some pansy-ass dragon who bowed down to all.
He didn’t need a female to hold his title. He didn’t have a heart to give to a mate and wouldn’t be so cold as to mate one, without being able to give her what was her due.
Belle, beautiful, uniquely perfect Belle with her shiny pink scales, who fought him with such sweetness, and had loved him with even more softness, that he found himself still aching for her every day and every damn night. Her name whispered through his mind as her image appeared before him. He saw her as she was the last time they’d been together. The hurt in her purple eyes, the beautiful hue swimming with so much pain it had gutted him, yet he knew his family would do worse had he not ended it. “I thought I was doing the right thing. If I’d known she was carrying my young I’d have…fuck,” he swore. “What could I have done differently?” He had only been the prince, not the king. His family would’ve had Belle imprisoned or killed. The young she carried would’ve met with the same fate, especially if she’d not been a royal color like him or her house color. His twin brother had been adamant she’d have been the death of not only him, but of their house since most twin dragons mated the same female. However, he had no plans to share Belle with anyone, let alone his brother.
Nikai spread his wings and realized Belle hadn’t responded to the call he’d sent. He knew she wasn’t dead, since his heart didn’t feel her loss. When she’d disappeared all those fucking years ago, he’d lost it. His fear that she’d been killed had driven him to near madness. His family had finally admitted they knew she’d left the realm but wouldn’t give him leave to follow. That had been the only thing that had kept him sane. Knowing she was alive was enough to settle him, or rather make him not the crazed dragon who burned everything in his path. It had taken him years before he could want another female, and even then, he never opened his heart or soul. His body was willing, but he had nothing else to offer them, not even a kiss—that was for his mate alone. That same feral dragon threatened to rip out of him and hunt down the female who belonged to them, but he was older, more in control this time. An image of the pink dragon from moments before slammed into him. She wasn’t his Belle, but their child.
Nikai was a planner, and a ruler. He wouldn’t go into a fight without ensuring he would come out the victor, and this was a fight he planned to win. Finding Belle, winning her heart for his own, and claiming her as his queen, was only the first thing he planned to conquer. The second was bringing his daughter, the pink dragon he saw through the Mist, back to the Dragon Realm where she belonged and finding her a mate was worthy of her. She was, after all, the daughter of the Dragon King.
Chapter Four
Lula shivered as a tug on her dragon tried to pull her back toward the Dragon Realm. Turning tail and running went against the grain, but a dragon had to do, what a dragon had to do. And Lula was most assuredly a dragon. Her first thought was to go to the Iron Wolves. Mainly because they were all kinds of crazy and fun, but then she really wanted to see her mom. Getting a hug and a little reassurance that everything would be okay from the female who was always there, well since she was born, had Lula appearing outside the kitchen in Fey. Familiar scents assaulted her, making her inhale deeply.
“Ahh, it’s a dragon,” Egypt shrieked.
“Ahh, it’s a human,” Lula huffed.
She shifted into her human form, laughing at the little human child. “Where’s your mama?”
Egypt pointed toward the garden over her shoulder. “She’s picking some vegetables for soup. Did you know there’s a little girl who sings a song about monkeys and rabbits in her soup?” Egypt made a gagging sound.
At the odd-sounding song, Lula widened her eyes. “What in the heck kind of music are you listening to? Come on, there’s a movie you need to watch. It’s called Wreck-it Ralph. There’s this little girl named Venellope. She’s super cute and drives race cars. You’ll like it.” Lula lifted Egypt onto her shoulders, taking them both through the door to the kitchen, explaining the movie she’d seen Nolan watching with some of the other kids at the Mystic Pack.
“What kind of name is Venellope?” Egypt asked her little voice was like a balm to Lula’s soul. Even if she never had her own children, she could fill those places with other little ones.
“Well, I believe it’s a fantabulous name.” Lula lifted the child down, making sure she was settled before she released her. Her mother Belle turned from the stove, knowing eyes the same shade as her own, meeting hers. “Hello, Mother. How’re you?”
Belle raised one brow. “I think we need to talk.”
“Oh, that’s not good, Lula. What did you do? Is Lula going to get a timeout?” Egypt slipped her tiny hand into Lula’s.
Lula gave the young girl a little grin before hugging her lightly. “Nah, I’m too old for a time out. Imagine how long
I’d be there, if we went by the rule of one minute, for every year I was alive,” she joked.
“Don’t tempt me, Lula,” Belle warned, wiping the mess away with a towel. “Asia, can you keep an eye on the stew?”
Asia, Egypt’s mother who had been terribly abused on Earth by a vampire, came in from the garden with a laugh, placing a basket filled with vegetables on the counter. “Of course. You two go ahead. Egypt and I got this.”
At her words, Egypt grabbed a chair and pulled it next to her mother. “I’ll help, Mama.”
Feeling as if she was in trouble, Lula bit her lip. “Um, I think I hear my name being called...somewhere other than here. I’ll come back later.”
Belle moved quickly, grabbing hold of Lula before she could disappear. “Oh no, you don’t, child. You and I need to talk, now. Let’s go.”
She’d forgotten how powerful her mother was, or maybe she’d blocked it from her memory. Either way, before she could say another word, Belle took them from the kitchen without missing a beat.
They materialized in her favorite place, but also the one place that was her sort of time-out. Anytime she’d done anything wrong, or her mother had to get on to her, this was where she’d take her. It was a safe place, a place they could argue without fear of harming the others with their dragon fire. Dear Goddess, she hoped her mother didn’t plan to teach her a lesson via fire because she had no plans to defend herself, nor did she plan to give up her mates. Her heart thudded against her chest, the garden, usually soothing even when she’d been in trouble, felt suffocating.
“Alright, start talking, and don’t even think of stalling.” Belle crossed her arms over her chest.
Lula whipped her head around the beautiful space her mother had flashed them to, the place she’d always gone when she’d been as child, trying to find a way to explain. Shoot, she knew there was no getting away from the discussion. But how did one tell her mother she’d found her mate, or rather mates, yet they were not dragons, but bears? How did she admit she’d gone to the one place she shouldn’t have gone as well?
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 124