by Chant, Zoe
“Good luck,” Braeden said, his expression making it obvious that he thought it was the worst plan he’d ever heard.
Damon only shook his head. “Call us if you need help. Really. I mean it. We might not always see eye to eye, but we know a bit more about human mates than you do.”
“Or call Autumn and me,” Naomi added, rolling her eyes at Autumn in sympathy. “Because your experts in the mysterious ways of the human women are standing right in front of you.”
“Will do,” Timothy said carelessly, obviously convinced that his genius plan would work out without a hitch.
Then, at last, the otter children started cheering, clearly in the hope to speed up the boring talking to get to the good parts that involved cake.
A moment later, everyone else joined in. The giraffe florist hurriedly bumped against several baskets hung up high, releasing a cloud of golden glitter that drifted through the air, showering them all in sparkles.
“I guess that’s our signal,” Damon said and laughed. Still holding on to Autumn’s hand, he stepped forward together with her.
At the same time, the sheriff had come forward as well, and now presented Damon with a small box.
Damon took hold of it and turned towards Autumn.
“I love you,” he said simply, his eyes the deep, warm brown of the earth. “Until the end of time itself, I am yours.”
“Until the end of time, I am yours,” she repeated, joy filling her with liquid heat. It was so strong it felt like her heart couldn’t possibly contain all the love inside her.
The mate bond pulsed with golden warmth between them as Damon opened the small box and drew out a necklace.
It was a polished, round stone of amber, encasing a tiny, perfectly preserved flower. In the light of the sun, the stone sparkled like the light of the sun itself had been trapped in it.
Gently, he fastened the chain around Autumn’s neck. The amber came to rest against her skin. It felt strangely warm and seemed to pulse with the same rhythm as the mate bond.
“My mate,” Damon said huskily. “And now also the lady of the earth.”
Autumn drew in a surprised breath as she felt a tickle of energy rushing through her, gathering at her fingertips.
There was a flower arrangement in front of them that had somehow drawn her attention. When she focused on it, she could dimly see another sort of energy that pulsed through it.
The energy of the earth. My element. Our element, Damon’s voice whispered through the mate bond.
Slowly, Autumn raised her hand. The amber at her throat grew even warmer—and then the energy tickling in her fingers pulsed out from her.
Instead of the gorgeous flower arrangement, a strange bush blossoming with at least twenty different flowers had suddenly appeared.
No, Autumn realized a heartbeat later. It was still the same flower arrangement. Only, with the power of the earth moving through it, she’d made the flowers grow roots. New shoots had blossomed into new flowers, and fragrant clusters of red, white and yellow came bursting out of the ground.
Amazed, she raised her hand to look at her fingers. Then she turned to Damon, laughing as the cheering around them intensified.
“I guess we’ll never have to worry about flowers for our table again,” she said, and then she was drawn into his arms.
Damon’s mouth was warm on hers, his strong arms hugging her tightly as he kissed her. Autumn gladly surrendered to it.
His love was streaming into her—and in turn, her own love was flowing towards him through the mate bond. Dimly, she could hear what had to be the song only his dragon could hear: the song of earth and stone and flowers.
Her earth dragon had come home, and the earth was rejoicing. And so was Autumn, because she’d finally come home as well. Home to him—and home to a love as generous as the earth, and as invincible as metal.
My mate, she whispered into the bond, more flowers sprouting at her feet.
Until the end of time, Damon said, the warm glow of the bond increasing until all she could see was Damon. Forever.
Mated to the Ocean Dragon
Chapter One: Liana
“Can’t we do it next weekend instead?” Liana Robinson said into her phone.
She stared into the mirror in despair. Her braids were already escaping from the bun, and the new lipstick she’d bought suddenly didn’t look quite as glamorous as it had looked when she’d tried it in the shop.
“It’s my birthday. You promised,” her sister Clairice said and laughed. “Also—and this was supposed to be a surprise—but I’ve got a hot date for you.”
There was a softer giggle in the background—one of her sister’s friends, who’d probably all already gathered for a night out at one of the glitzy clubs her sister liked.
Her sister who was a successful lawyer, even though she pretty much never had an hour off.
Meanwhile Liana was a programmer. She worked on a game popular with twelve-year-old girls, where kids could breed colorful dragons, decorate them and let them compete.
She loved working in the gaming industry, and she loved the ridiculous, colorful little game she was working on—but she didn’t like her boss, and she also didn’t like the pitying looks people gave her when she admitted just what sort of game she was working for.
It’s fun—most days—and it pays the bills. And also, at 5 p.m. I get to go home and do whatever I like with the rest of my day. Unlike all those successful lawyers who work past midnight and are back at the office at 7 a.m. sharp.
“All right, I’ll be ready in half an hour,” Liana said, biting back her sigh.
She gave her wardrobe a critical look. Work had given them all shirts with their favorite dragon last month, when they’d hit 1 million downloads. Would they let her into a club in that?
Probably not.
Liana pulled out her favorite shirt and held it up to her chest in the mirror.
A Star Wars shirt. Which had glitter on it. Glitter was clubwear, right?
With a sigh, she dropped it. She could already hear her sister laughing at her.
Which left just one option.
From the back of her wardrobe, she pulled out the shirt her sister had given her for Christmas. It was golden, with a swirling pattern of white flowers.
She had to admit that it looked pretty stunning against the tawny brown of her skin—but all the same, it made her a bit uncomfortable. She didn’t like standing out, and this shirt definitely called for attention.
At least it hugged all of her generous curves in just the right way, which most shirts didn’t.
You’d think the fashion industry would eventually catch up to the fact that some of us have curves, she thought as she gave a sparkly Star Trek shirt a dark look.
She’d bought it at a convention a year ago in the hope that she’d fit into it if she’d just work out a little.
Which hadn’t happened so far. But then, there were so many other things to do in the evenings...
Like catching up on her shows and her books. And working on the game she hadn’t told anyone she was working on.
Her boss had been adamant that Dragon Heights was just about breeding dragons, period. He’d outright laughed at her suggestion to add unicorns, pegasi and griffins.
But it’s what the kids keep asking for. And I’m sure it would be successful.
She hadn’t made much progress yet, between her day job and other distractions, but she knew her game could be successful if she did it right. She’d simply need an investor who cared about what children wanted to play, instead of thinking only about how much money could be made with it.
Half an hour later, she was standing in her sister’s expensive apartment, Clairice’s friends tutting at her.
“The shirt is nice,” one of them said critically, “but what is your eyeliner doing?”
“It’s perfectly fine eyeliner,” Liana protested, even as she was pushed into a chair.
Clairice’s friends descended on her like
a pack of giggling hyenas, and Liana held on to the chair for dear life as her face was pushed this way and that, pencils and brushes and paint coming out everywhere she looked.
When she was allowed to stagger out of her chair ten minutes later, she gasped as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.
She didn’t even recognize the woman who was looking at her.
She was Liana Robinson—just another curvy geek girl. No one who’d ever asked her out on a date had stuck around for long.
Which honestly was fine with her because then she could stop being anxious about the date and get back to catching up with her shows.
But now she looked—different. Whatever the girls had done to her face made her look as if she was a top model about to slink along a catwalk. They’d painted her lips a red she’d never dare to use. They’d put fake eyelashes on her that made her eyes look enormous, and there was golden eyeshadow and eyeliner applied in what Liana had to admit was a way more professional line than the smudged mess she was usually satisfied with.
“Wow, that is...” she breathed as she gaped at her reflection.
She could barely believe that it was truly her in the mirror. She looked amazing.
Maybe tonight would be different. Maybe she wouldn’t feel so awfully exposed in the club.
Most of the time when she’d allow her sister to drag her along she felt like the ugly duckling, while everyone else felt right at home. And it wasn’t as if she didn’t like dancing, because she did.
Liana just wasn’t a part of the champagne-drinking, designer clothes-wearing crowd that hung out in Clairice’s favorite clubs. And she was pretty sure that everyone who took one look at her knew that, too.
“He’d better be hot,” she said to her sister. “After all this trouble.”
Clairice smirked. “Just you wait. He’s a client of ours—rich, mysterious and handsome. And he asked me if I had a single sister. What are the odds?”
“Huh.” Liana wasn’t quite sure what to think about that. Rich, mysterious and handsome never went for the curvy black geek girl, in her experience.
But maybe she’d get a fun night dancing with a handsome stranger out of it, and who knew—maybe he’d be really interested in the latest bugs of a dragon breeding game for kids.
Chapter Two: Timothy
Timothy Drago, the dragon of water, member of the council of elements, one of the most powerful dragon shifters in the world, had a problem.
It wasn’t the fact that the council was in a constant state of alarm, due to the threat posed by dangerous fire dragons, who’d recently reappeared.
No, his problem was much simpler. The master of the council, the ancient chimera Gareth, had ordered him to find his mate as quickly as possible.
And to make matters worse, Timothy had been saddled with the task of babysitting their captive fire dragon Braeden at the same time.
Things couldn’t get much worse than that.
Braeden was unable to shift into his dragon form or access his powers, because they kept him dosed with dragonsbane, and the chimera had fitted bracelets of obsidian around his wrists that kept his powers locked.
Still, having a fire dragon commenting on his so far rather unsuccessful attempts to find his mate had quickly become extremely irritating.
“Why don’t you just give up?” Braeden said with a smirk. “I can already tell you that there’s no way a human woman would ever want to live with you.”
Timothy briefly considered throwing his phone at the dragon, but then kept swiping through the pictures in the tenth dating app he’d downloaded.
It would have been bad enough to try and find his mate among shifters—but a human mate? There were millions of them out there! It felt rather like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack—but he’d be damned if he’d give the fire dragon the satisfaction of admitting to that.
“That’s because you have no idea how women work,” Timothy said blithely. “Last summer I went on a cruise where they shot for a new fashion collection. Within a week I’d gone on a date with every single model on that ship.”
He smirked at Braeden, who in turn gave him a disgusted look.
“No wonder you’re not finding anyone. I’d rather date a frog than you, if I were a human woman.”
“Ha, I bet a frog is the only creature on this planet who’d date you, fire dragon,” Timothy said pointedly. “What with wanting to destroy us all. Not a good look on the first date.”
“And leading all those women on is?” Braeden snorted, then demonstratively turned away.
In turn, Timothy threw himself down onto the couch, idly swiping through the app some more. “We’re all just having fun. You should try that some time. Oh, I forgot—you can’t.”
The truth was that while Timothy had been a bit of a party animal in his youth, he’d quickly grown out of it. But pretending that he was off dating ten supermodels at a time infuriated Damon, the prim earth dragon, and so Timothy had kept up the stories. It was an image he was comfortable with, even though the truth was that most of the time, nothing happened apart from some good-natured flirting.
His exploits on the cruise had been more like a business arrangement at the time. The models liked the paparazzi attention and free PR that came from being seen in his company, and he in turn liked the attention it brought for the fundraiser he’d run at the time. But the truth was that even supermodels had to get up early in the morning for work, and Timothy had long ago outgrown the disappointing pleasure of casual sex.
Which didn’t mean that he’d stopped wanting to enjoy himself. But you could have fun going out for drinks and dancing with a gorgeous model without going home with her afterward.
Not that he’d give Damon the pleasure of admitting that.
“Anyway, I’ve already got a date for tonight,” Timothy said with a smirk. “I don’t have one for you, sorry. But you’ll still have to come along. It’s what the chimera decided, remember.”
“He didn’t decree that I was to witness your... your debauchery and wantonness,” the fire dragon said prissily.
Timothy laughed so hard he almost dropped his phone. “Debauchery! That’s a good one. Anyway, you’re supposed to get a better idea of human life, so you’re coming to that nightclub with me. Get a good look at how humans party.”
The fire dragon scowled. “From what I’ve learned about humans so far, I know that I like them way better than I like you. You, I wouldn’t mind burning down.”
“Pity that you can’t.”
Timothy idly waved his hand, and a small amount of ocean water splashed into Braeden’s face from out of nowhere. “Now go dry yourself and get ready. We’re heading out in ten minutes.”
“I hope you’ll never find your mate,” Braeden said darkly. “I hope you go insane and they’ll put you out of your misery. I’ll be there clapping when it happens.”
“I think I’m going to take you to a goth club tomorrow. You’ll feel right at home.”
Timothy smirked when Braeden angrily retired into his own room, then sighed and started to get ready himself.
He couldn’t even say why he’d asked one of the lawyers working for him if she had a single sister.
It had seemed like a good idea at the time—or rather, so far he hadn’t been able to find his mate no matter what he’d tried, so by this point any approach seemed fair.
He’d make sure her sister had a good time. He’d be charming and buy her expensive champagne and make her laugh, and in the early morning hours, he’d slink back to his apartment all alone and disappointed, because none of the hundreds of women in the nightclub had turned out to be his mate.
Maybe the earth dragon was right after all. Maybe it was a stupid idea. But what can I do? We can’t all be as lucky as air and earth and just run into our mate by accident.
Maybe in the end Timothy would be the one who couldn’t find a mate, despite all of his natural charm. Maybe he was the only one of them fated to go insane and die
.
And wouldn’t the fire dragon like that.
Timothy glared at the mirror as he shrugged on a shirt and buttoned it up.
There was more at stake than just his life.
A mysterious, fourth plinth had appeared in the council chamber. A plinth marked by the element of fire. Which meant that finally, a fire dragon had appeared who was master of the element itself.
It was that dragon who had to be their enemy. The most dangerous one out of the bunch that had recently reappeared.
And to defeat him, the council needed to be at its most powerful. Which meant that Timothy, as the last unmated council member, needed to be mated to access his full powers.
His phone flashed with new notifications from one of the many dating apps he’d installed, but he ignored it. Tonight, he’d try finding her the old-fashioned way. Surely she had to be out there somewhere.
Chapter Three: Liana
When they got out of the cab, he was already waiting for them.
Liana knew it was him the second she saw him. He was white, in his early thirties, with an easy smile and lightly tanned skin that made her think of island resorts and beach parties.
Her sister hadn’t lied: he was tall and handsome. His dark hair was just long enough to curl against his forehead, and he was wearing a black silk shirt and tight, dark designer jeans, which probably cost more than she earned in a month.
A guy like that would never look twice at her.
Even so, she got out of the cab in a daze, following along behind her sister as she went straight up to the sexy, mysterious stranger.
“Timothy! I’m so glad you made it. This is my sister, Liana.”
Liana stared at the man like a deer trapped in the headlights.
“Nice to meet you,” she said automatically, holding out her hand.