by Julia Mills
Kiss of Her Dragon
Dragon Guard Series #19
by
Julia Mills
There Are No Coincidences.
The Universe Does Not Make Mistakes.
Fate Will Not Be Denied.
Copyright © 2017 Julia Mills
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictional manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
NOTICE: This is an adult erotic paranormal romance with love scenes and mature situations. It is only intended for adult readers over the age of 18.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Edited by Lisa Miller, Angel Editing Services
Proofread by Tammy Payne with Book Nook Nuts
Cover Designed by Linda Boulanger with Tell Tale Book Covers
Formatted by Charlene Bauer with Wickedly Bold Creations
DEDICATION
Dare to Dream! Find the Strength to Act! Never Look Back!
Thank you, God.
To my girls, Liz and Em, I Love You. Every day, every way, always.
Index of the Original Language of the Dragon Kin
Kiss of Her Dragon
Mo chroi’……….My heart
Mo ghra’……….My love
Mo stór……….My darling
Mo maité……….My mate
Mo Dragon……….My dragon
Iompróidh……….Bear
Is brae liom tú……….I love you
Mo iompróidh beag ……….My little bear
Mo stóirin……….My little treasure
Tá mo chroí istigh ionat……….My heart is within you
Teacht chugam……….Come to me
Is brae liom tú……….I love you
Agus is brae lion……….And I love you
Bheith a bheith ciúin fós……….Be silent, be still
Le chéile go deo deo i ngrá……….Together forever, forever in love
Also by Julia Mills
*****
The Dragon Guard Series
Her Dragon to Slay, Dragon Guard #1
Her Dragon’s Fire, Dragon Guard #2
Haunted by Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #3
For the Love of Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #4
Saved by Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #5
Only for Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #6
Fighting for Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #7
Her Dragon’s Heart, Dragon Guard #8
Her Dragon’s Soul, Dragon Guard #9
The Fate of Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #10
Her Dragon’s No Angel, Dragon Guard #11
Her Dragon, His Demon, Dragon Guard #12
Resurrecting Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #13
The Scars of Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #14
Her Mad Dragon, Dragon Guard #15
Tears for Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #16
Guarding Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #17
Sassing Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #18 (Sassy Ever After Kindle World)
Her Love, Her Dragon: The Saga Begins, A Dragon Guard Prequel
*****
The ‘Not-Quite’ Love Story Series
Vidalia: A ‘Not-Quite Vampire Love Story
Phoebe” A ‘Not-Quite’ Phoenix Love Story
Zoey: A ‘Not-Quite’ Zombie Love Story
Jax: A ‘Not-Quite’ Puma Love Story
Heidi: A ‘Not-Quite’ Hellhound Love Story (Magic & Mayhem Kindle World)
Lola: A ‘Not-Quite’ Witchy Love Story (Magic & Mayhem Kindle World)
*****
Kings of the Blood
VIKTOR: Heart of Her King ~ Kings of the Blood ~ Book 1
ROMAN: Fury of Her King ~ Kings of the Blood ~ Book2
ACHILLES: Soul of Her King ~ Kings of the Blood ~ Book 3
The Dragon Guard
We soar the skies
Free to a certain extent,
As long as we stay hidden
From prying human eyes.
Our scales differ in color
Our defensive weapons,
Tails, horns, talons and all,
Are never the same.
We are one with nature
We blend in with nature
The wind helps us soar high in the heavens
While the earth grant us healing strength in our hour of need.
We are one with the world
We are the guardians of our kin
When evil conspire to maim and hurt
We are protectors of this human race.
As majestic animals of fairytales
We share our beings with great men
They walk in honor and the grace of Fate,
Fate that we cannot deny.
Copyright © 2016 Melanie Williams
- This Poem is based on the Series, The Dragon Guard by Author Julia Mills
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
EPILOGUE
ALSO BY JULIA MILLS
ABOUT JULIA
Prologue
“How much longer, Brann? This sitting around listening to you tap on that bloody computer is driving me mad.”
At least three days, Lenn. I told you that before we left the lair. Now, go find something to blow up.” Brann pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Or better yet, go back to the lair and I’ll call you when I’m ready.”
“But what if you need to go somewhere? I’ll be taking the only wheels.”
Brannoc, the Dragon Guard’s resident computer expert, knew his longtime friend was itching to get the heck out of the woods and back with the others. They didn’t call Lennox the mad bomber for nothing. He lived on adrenalin, loved the rush, and looked for ways to up his game at every turn. The Heavens knew if he wasn’t blowing something up, he just wasn’t happy.
“I’ll be fine. If worse comes to worse, I’ll take Rian’s Harley. It’s in the barn.”
Raising his eyebrows, Lennox whistled then snickered. “Living life on the wild side, huh?”
“No, he told me I could if I needed to. He trusted me with his cabin, so why wouldn’t he trust me with his bike?”
Brannoc had been trying for weeks to make headway into his research but was getting nowhere with the daily chaos of the lair. It had been a godsend when his friend and leader, Rian, had suggested Brann go up to his vacation home in the woods. Not only had the younger Guardsman missed the scenery of the forest but the peace and quiet was perfect for what he was trying to accomplish…that is if his brother would ever shut up.
“No reason,” Lennox held his hands up in surrender before grabbing his duffle, throwing it over his shoulder, and asking, “Are you sure? I mean, if you…”
“Get out of here. The Goddess knows I’ll get more done without you asking ‘how much longer’ every twenty minutes.”
“Well, if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.”
“Thanks, Brann. You’re the best,” Lennox hollered over his shoulder as he crossed the threshold and disappeared off the porch.
“Thank the Heavens he�
��s finally gone. Maybe I can finally get something done,” Brannoc mumbled to himself as he opened yet another encrypted file from the O’Baoill’s torture chamber.
Decoding the files wasn’t the toughest part of the job he’d been given by Rian, the leader of their clan. It was reading the clinical notes of the torture shifters of every shape and species had received in the name of science that made his stomach turn and his blood boil. At least that’s what Tariq and his demented twins called what they were doing. In all actuality, they were on a quest to extract that special part—the magic—that gave shifters their enhanced abilities. From what Brannoc had found so far, it looked as if they were trying to create super hunters in their fight against all things paranormal.
“Did no one teach these idiots the law of supply and demand?” he asked himself. “If you kill off all your supply…” His monologue was cut short by the sound of a tree limb snapping under someone’s foot just outside the cabin.
Saving his work, laying his glasses on the table, and closing his laptop, the Guardsman got up and headed to the back of the cabin. Looking out the bank of windows, he searched the wildness for any intruders or, Heavens forbid, another of his brethren coming to help him.
It didn’t take but a second before he was caught up in looking at the scenery. The rays of the setting sun over the mountains shining through the leaves was beautiful. Every time he visited Rian’s cabin he was reminded of why the Dragon Leader and his mate loved it so much. The view was spectacular, the quiet was wonderful, and the privacy was absolutely perfect for the couple who had been mated for less than a year.
The sound of another twig snapping and a low growl pulled the Guardsman from his thoughts. Opening the back door, he stepped out onto the wooden deck and searched the grounds. It took several minutes but finally, about a hundred yards away, he caught sight of beautiful chocolate-colored fur shining in one of the last bits of sunlight as a brown bear scratched against the trunk of a huge maple tree.
Watching the magnificent creature, Brannoc was shocked when the bear turned, raised its head, and looked right at him. There was a twinkle in her dark brown eyes as she wrinkled her snout and moved her head from side to side. The Guardsman had no idea how he knew the bear was female, only that there was no doubt in his mind or his dragon’s that she was.
He took a step off the deck as visions of another bear, the one who had claimed his heart from the moment he carried her from the depths of the O’Baoill’s dungeon, flooded his mind. He pictured her just as he’d last seen her, sitting at the picnic table behind the clinic at the lair talking to Calysta, Maddox’s mate, who is also the Grande Priestess of all Earthen Witches and an amazing healer, about being discharged and returning to her family. The sun had been at her back highlighting the caramel streaks that ran through her long dark hair and framing her lovely face in an angelic glow that made it hard for him not to approach.
He admitted to shamelessly staying hidden and eavesdropping on the ladies’ conversation. Annie was questioning whether she was ready to leave and Calysta was reassuring the bear shifter that she needed to return to her normal way of life.
“Normal way of life,” Brann scoffed. “Is there such a thing?”
The bear gave a grunt, demanding the Guardsman’s attention, and motioned with her head for him to follow. Standing, Brannoc carefully walked toward the animal, not sure what to make of her behavior. The closer he got, the more magic filled the air, until from one step to the next, the bear became a woman. Before he could ask what was happening, she grabbed his hand and tugged, pleading, “Please come with me. We need your help.”
Chapter One
“Is it too much trouble to know where you’re taking me?”
“No.”
“And…”
“It’s not too much trouble, I’m just not supposed to say,” the bear shifter answered over her shoulder.
Brannoc had been following her in total silence for the better part of an hour. He’d used up all his patience and was quickly heading toward irritated. The only reason he’d put up with her stupid game of follow the leader for as long as he had was because of her scent, that of a delicate mix of rain-kissed roses and the freshness of the forest, was almost an exact duplicate of Annie’s. They had to be relatives; probably sisters. It was the only explanation for the similarity and the Guardsman wasn’t too proud to admit that he wanted to see his little bear more than anything in the world.
“Can I at least know your name?”
“Tabitha,” she quickly answered, ducking under a low-hanging branch before stopping, turning, and glaring at him. “And before you ask… No, Annie didn’t send me. Yes, Annie needs you and yes, I’m her sister.”
Shocked into silence as he watched the bear spin back around and resume her forward march, Brannoc jogged to catch up while remembering the woman who’d captured his heart with a single glance. It had been almost three months since he’d watched her shift into bear form and head off into the woods behind the lair in search of the family she’d been taken from. He knew Annie needed her kin to complete the healing process. Calysta, Niall, and Dr. Camille Danvers had done all they could; it was now up to nature, her family, and the Universe.
Physically, Annie had a clean bill of health. Magically, she was at a hundred percent. It was her psychological and social wellbeing that needed the forest around her and the camaraderie of her kin to return to the once happy-go-lucky woman he’d glimpsed from memories.
Visions of how she’d looked when Brannoc carried his bear from the O’Baoill’s underground bunker flooded his memory. Guised as a research facility, but actually a torture chamber where an especially twisted bunch of hunters under the leadership of Tariq O’Baoill and his psychopathic twins, Adam and Eve, tested and abused shifters of all species in the hopes of creating Super Hunters, the underground barracks had thankfully been destroyed, but that didn’t stop the nightmares. The Dragon Guard either rescued or laid to rest thousands of shifters that day. It was one of the worst things any of the dragons had ever seen. Thankfully, Annie was one of the few they were able to help. She had been so frail, so timid, barely able to hold her head up from the constant abuse and malnourishment.
Both man and dragon had roared from the mere sight of their mate amidst all the equipment and machines. From one heartbeat to the next, he’d snapped the silver cuffs that were eating away at the flesh of her wrists and ankles, then carefully removed the needles from her arms and the wires attached to the top of her head before lifting her into his arms and holding her to his chest, absorbing her scent and breathing a sigh of relief that he’d found her before it was too late.
Annie hadn’t moved, hadn’t cried out, hadn’t given any indication she even knew she’d been freed as Brannoc raced from the room, down the winding corridors, up the ladder, and out into the warm sunlight. Stopping several feet from the hole he’d just climbed out of, the Guardsman breathed in the fresh, clean air in an attempt to soothe not only his abraded senses, but also his aching heart and soul. He focused on the slow, deliberate beat of her heart, felt her shallow breaths upon his chest, and thanked the Heavens she was still alive. But, worry immediately followed when she still did not move.
Praying to the Universe, he had quickly moved to the edge of the forest where the healers of his clan had set up triage for the victims. Kneeling, Brannoc had come to a sudden stop as an agonized whimper reached his ears and Annie shook in his arms. Holding his breath, he waited for her to move, to speak, to give any indication that she had awakened.
Finally, his little bear summoned all her strength, opened her big brown eyes, and glanced up at him through her impossibly long eye lashes. That moment, that blessed moment, was indelibly etched upon his heart. She had marked both man and dragon as her own and the two powerful warriors swore right then and there to protect her at all costs.
It didn’t matter that she was covered in cuts and bruises and scars, or that dark circles ringed her expressive eyes, or even that
her lips were so chapped that they cracked and bled. To him she was the most beautiful creature in the world. There was no one like her. She was the other half of his soul, the light to his darkness, and the one woman in all the world made just for him. She completed him like no other and there was nothing he wouldn’t do to see her happy and healthy.
Days turned into weeks as he found every excuse to visit the clinic just to catch a glimpse of Annie and check on her recovery. His heart broke to see her struggling to find her magic and to call her bear. Calysta and Niall had repeatedly warned him not to help her or allow his dragon to lend her any magic. It was something she had to do on her own. She had to stop being afraid and let the magic she had tucked away, hidden from the hunters, return to the surface and once again regain its rightful place within her.
He vividly recalled the day she’d unknowingly used mind speak and called to him in fear as her magic returned in a rush of power. Brannoc stood outside her room listening to Calysta’s soothing voice as she’d instructed Annie to relax and let her bear come forward. He felt the unadulterated joy as woman and bear were reunited and had laughed out loud when in her Ursa form, his mate had strutted down the corridor and out into the courtyard. From there, her recovery had been nothing short of miraculous. It was amazing to watch her come out of her shell, embrace her bear, and experience joy again. It was her smile and the twinkle in her eye every time she looked in his direction that kept the Guardsman in a perpetual state of what his pain-in-the-ass brethren called love struck.
“You really need to learn to shield your thoughts better, Brann,” Lennox said directly into his mind.
“What are you talking about? I’m sitting here deciphering files?”
“And where exactly is ‘here’?” Pearce, the Zen, laid back member of their force, asked with a snicker.