by Zoe Chant
Mated to the Fire Dragon
Elemental Mates #4
By Zoe Chant
Copyright Zoe Chant 2018
All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Alyx
Chapter Two: Braeden
Chapter Three: Alyx
Chapter Four: Braeden
Chapter Five: Alyx
Chapter Six: Braeden
Chapter Seven: Alyx
Chapter Eight: Braeden
Chapter Nine: Alyx
Chapter Ten: Braeden
Chapter Eleven: Alyx
Chapter Twelve: Braeden
Chapter Thirteen: Alyx
Chapter Fourteen: Braeden
Chapter Sixteen: Braeden
Chapter Seventeen: Alyx
Chapter Eighteen: Braeden
Chapter Nineteen: Alyx
Chapter Twenty: Braeden
Chapter Twenty-One: Alyx
Epilogue: Alyx
A note from Zoe Chant
More Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant
If you love Zoe Chant, you’ll also love these books
Sneak Preview: Mated to the Ocean Dragon
The Elemental Mates series
Mated to the Storm Dragon
Mated to the Earth Dragon
Mated to the Ocean Dragon
Mated to the Fire Dragon
Mated to the Griffin (forthcoming)
Elemental Mates Box Set 1
(contains Mated to the Storm Dragon, Mated to the Earth Dragon and Mated to the Ocean Dragon)
This book stands alone. However, it’s part of Elemental Mates, a series about powerful dragon shifters finding their mates and protecting the world. For maximum enjoyment, it’s recommended to read the series in order.
Mated to the Griffin is forthcoming. If you’d like to be emailed when it comes out, please click here to be added to my mailing list.
Chapter One: Alyx
Alyx Chen woke with a gasp.
For a moment, she didn’t know where she was, feeling disoriented while the memories of her dream still lingered in her mind.
A boardwalk... A Ferris wheel... Wind in her hair and the sensation of absolute freedom...
Then she drew in a deep breath. At the familiar sensation of stale, warm air, that tantalizing glimpse of the freedom she’d once known was gone from her mind.
With a groan, she sat up on her little cot.
Her small room was lit by the tiny lamp with the broken lampshade that was one of the few amenities of her room.
Not that it was really a room. It was little more than a prison cell.
There were no windows with bars in front of them—but that was because she had no windows at all. And because she was underground.
I can’t escape. It’s impossible. There’s no use dreaming of the sky and the sun. I’m going to die here.
In the dim light of her one lamp, she stood and stretched, then hastily washed and dressed.
She didn’t have a brush, so she used her fingers to comb her shoulder-length black hair as well as she could. It fell limp and straight down past her shoulders before she hastily gathered it back in a simple ponytail. The strand of formerly brilliant turquoise had faded to a dull grey-blue.
Once, she’d enjoyed her morning routine, spending half an hour in her bathroom with a hair dryer and her large box of makeup. She’d left her apartment with a smile on her face and grabbed coffee and a bagel on her way to work.
She’d breezed into the office with a smile for the girls at reception and all her colleagues. And when she’d at last settled down in front of her sleek laptop, she’d known that she was exactly where she’d always wanted to be.
Alyx Chen, working for the hottest lifestyle magazine in town, with her own column about makeup, clubbing, fashion trends, and where to get the best organic soy whatever in the city.
Of course, that was before her boss had decided that Alyx was getting a little too old for their target audience—whatever that meant. So far she’d been able to cling to her position and her column, but the vultures in the form of gorgeous, recent college graduate Lea were already circling...
And now, two months later, here she was: a prisoner in an underground cell, her hair limp and dull, without even a mirror of her own to check if she looked as horrible as she felt.
A moment later, someone banged on her door.
“Hey, human. Firebird wants you.”
Alyx flinched.
She knew the voice well. It was one of the dragon shifters who locked her into her cell every day, making sure that she wouldn’t escape.
Not that there was any way for a human to escape from an underground fire dragon lair.
Two months ago, I didn’t even know that dragons were real...
Alyx took a deep breath, then straightened. The only thing she could do was to play along.
Pretend to be scared and docile. Do whatever they tell me to do. Be the perfect human servant.
And then, one day, there might be an opening somewhere, and she’d take it and run. But for now...
“Hurry up, I said,” the voice snapped. There was a rattling sound as her door was unlocked and then opened.
It revealed the dragon shifter who’d come to fetch her. He stared at her with his oily grin, his dark eyes moving slowly over her body with obvious appreciation.
Alyx resisted the urge to cross her arms in front of her chest. Instead, keeping her head low and her eyes on the ground, she carefully moved past him and out into the corridor.
“One day the firebird will tire of you, little human,” the shifter growled. “We’re all waiting for that day.”
Alyx didn’t acknowledge his words. Instead, she hurried forward through the long corridor, which was lit by flickering lamps.
One day, the firebird might indeed tire of her. But until then, she was useful. And as long as she was useful, she was safe...
***
“Come in,” the voice of the firebird called out impatiently when Alyx knocked on her door.
Hurriedly, Alyx made her way inside, firmly closing the door behind her. At least for a moment, she was safe from the awful stares of her dragon shifter guards.
The firebird—or rather, the lady Zena, which was what the more polite of the fire dragon guards called her—was reclining on her lounge, wrapped in a silk robe and holding one of her doorstopper novels.
“Finally,” Zena said, without looking up. “You’re late. You can start on my hair.”
“Of course,” Alyx said, making her way over to the dresser.
Lady Zena, the firebird shifter, was an honored guest and ally of the fire dragons who had captured Alyx and locked her up. At least, that was what both the fire dragons and Zena herself claimed.
To Alyx, on the other hand, it looked like Zena was in exactly the same situation as she was.
Locked up underground. A prisoner.
Just with a lot more comfort, access to makeup and mirrors, and an apparently endless supply of books.
Still, even if Alyx secretly thought that they were just the same, that didn’t make Zena any nicer.
Zena might not be able to leave—but she claimed she didn’t want to. She’d allied herself willingly with the fire dragons.
No, Alyx wouldn’t be able to depend on any help from Zena to make her escape. But at least pretending to be Zena’s maid got her out of her cell and away from the guards.
And she’d do anything—anything at all—to make sure that she’d never have to go back to those horrible first weeks of her capture.
Alyx remembered very little of them. She remembered being ti
ed to a table, swallowing some horrible potion that smelled burnt and made her retch. She remembered a darkness that crept up on her, tendrils of shadows all around her while fire rushed through her veins, burning her from the inside.
For nearly two weeks, the fire dragons had made her drink their terrible potions, as if she was nothing more than a guinea pig for them, a lab rat.
She’d never been able to figure out exactly what the dragons had hoped to do.
They’d never touched her—but she’d been lost in the potion-induced nightmares for so long that in the end, she hadn’t even felt safe in her own mind anymore. Shadow and fire had eaten away at her, as if they were trying to burn the humanity out of her.
And perhaps that was what they’d been trying to do. But in the end, Alyx had turned out to be a failure. She was still just as human. The shadows and fire that invaded her mind left as soon as the potion was out of her system.
After two weeks, Alyx had been released from those terrible experiments and cast aside, a useless, defenseless human trapped in a realm of terrifying fire dragons.
Alyx traced the brush inlaid with mother-of-pearl, forcing herself to take in its beauty. Once, beauty had been what she’d lived for.
And that part of her wasn’t dead yet, no matter what the fire dragons had tried to do.
One day she’d escape. And until then, she’d be grateful that Zena was bored and lonely and wanted a human woman to keep her company.
“I’ll read to you while you do my hair,” the woman said imperiously.
Zena was a bit of a mystery. She had to be at least in her forties, although her tastes were those of someone born a century or two ago. For all that she had an entire chest of books in her rooms, they were all books written in the nineteenth century.
Zena had never heard of Bridget Jones or Sex and the City. Meanwhile, Alyx’s only exposure to the old Russian novels Zena liked was a period drama her mother had adored.
In the end, they’d settled on Jane Austen. They’d made it through Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility and had now arrived at Mansfield Park.
For a precious hour, Alyx felt all her worries and fears vanish as she allowed Zena’s voice to carry her away to a world of mansions and gentleman callers and balls.
There was something very soothing about sinking into the stories and characters Zena loved. There’d be a happy ending and people ended up realizing who truly loved them.
As she ran the brush through Zena’s hair, Alyx felt herself relax. Slowly, carefully, she braided the long red hair. There was a single lock of white hair in it, which gave away Zena’s age, although it didn’t make her look old exactly—just experienced and mysterious.
Once she’d arranged and pinned the braids in place at the back of Zena’s head, Alyx began to put Zena’s makeup on.
Who knew that all those years of being a fashion expert would be so useful one day! From the hottest column of the city straight to being a shifter’s maid.
She smiled at herself, carefully applying the highlighter along Zena’s cheekbones.
Really, it was something to be grateful for. She didn’t kid herself—Zena belonged to the shifters who’d kidnapped her and kept her captive.
But all the same, Zena was safety. Better to pretend to be some sort of old-fashioned maid than return to those terrifying days of the poison ravaging her mind...
“What’s wrong? You stopped.”
Zena’s voice broke through the terrible memory, and Alyx quickly shook it off.
“Nothing. Sorry. Continue, please—I want to know how it all ends.”
Alyx forced herself to smile as she reached for the small box of jewelry.
She couldn’t trust Zena. She needed to remember that.
I’m just another human to her. A toy to entertain her and keep her company. Like how other people keep a toy poodle. But ultimately, she’s a shifter and I’m a human, and she wouldn’t raise a hand to protect me if it meant she’d endanger her own standing here.
As Zena continued to read, Alyx carefully fastened golden clips sparkling with yellow, red, and orange gemstones to her hair. Then, at last, Zena sighed and put the book away, rising to choose a dress to wear.
As Zena reached out for an elaborate red dress of embroidered silk, Alyx felt her heart sink.
That sort of dress meant that Zena was leaving her rooms for a meeting with the fire dragons. Which meant that Alyx would be sent back to her tiny, drab cell, with no entertainment or company to make the captivity more bearable.
“You might want to use the mirror and fix your hair.” Zena arched a brow at her. “It looks like some bird made its nest in it.”
Alyx hurried over to the mirror, grimacing at her reflection. She was a far cry from the city’s sexiest curvy fashion expert. She looked as if she’d come straight out of one of Zena’s nineteenth century novels, all gray and mousy and terrified.
Just wait until I get out of here...
She used one of Zena’s combs to work a tangle out of her hair. It helped, a little. She was still no closer to looking like her true self, but at least her hair was sort of presentable now.
And then there was a harsh knock on the door.
Alyx flinched instinctively, her mouth dry. She forced herself to show no other reaction.
“I’m ready,” Zena called out in a bored voice.
The door opened. Another shifter guard stepped in.
He didn’t even acknowledge Alyx as he gave Zena a small bow.
“Your presence is requested.”
“Of course it is.” Zena gestured with her hand. “Get a bath ready for me when I return. And the bedroom needs cleaning.”
Alyx hastily nodded, not daring to meet their eyes.
Then the door closed.
Alyx took a cautious breath. For a long moment, she didn’t dare to move.
But no one came back for her. She was all alone in Zena’s rooms.
Perhaps Zena had meant it as a kindness, allowing Alyx to read some of her books while she was busy.
All the same, right now there was only one single thing Alyx could think about.
There hadn’t been any sound of a key turning.
The guard who’d taken Zena away had forgotten to lock the door.
Chapter Two: Braeden
Braeden didn’t move a single muscle as he lay in hiding, closely watching one of the back entrances to what had to be a secret fire dragon lair.
He knew because he, too, was a fire dragon. And not long ago, he’d lived underground with the rest of his people.
For centuries, ever since the Middle Ages when they’d been hunted almost to extinction by human knights, they’d hidden underground from all eyes. For centuries, their people had thought of nothing but revenge. Revenge on the humans who’d hunted them. Revenge on other dragon shifters—water dragons, earth dragons, everyone who’d refused to join them in their fight to subdue humanity before all fire dragons were wiped out.
But no one had joined in their crusade against humans back then, and so they’d at last been forced to flee deep underground, to gather their strength during centuries spent in caves and tunnels far below the earth.
There was a strange thrum of something in the air now.
It increased until Braeden could feel the hair at the back of his neck stand up. He kept utterly still, drawing on the power of his element to cloak himself in fire. If all went well, that should make him invisible to the senses of other fire dragons.
Then there was a rumble, and the side of the mountain he’d been watching all day seemed to split open.
Where there had been only dull, gray rock before, a dark hole had appeared.
An opening, just as he had suspected.
And now three dragons shot out, beating their wings to rise high into the sky.
A moment later, they were gone. Braeden clenched his teeth as the rock rumbled again and the opening vanished.
But now he knew where it was. It was a first step. Th
e first on a very long road towards fulfilling the mission the council of elements had tasked him with.
Still, it was a start.
Braeden kept watching until twilight had turned into darkness, the mountain before him nothing but a spot of blackness against the dark sky.
Then, very carefully, he rose and moved closer.
As the new master of the element of fire, he could cloak himself in flames. He would appear just like any other fire dragon—or so he hoped. Still, just in case, he made sure to use the bushes and trees as cover, continually sending his dragon’s senses out.
There was a distant thread of fire calling out to him—that had to be the elaborate system of caves and tunnels hidden underground where they’d made their home.
But when he reached out to the mountain in front of him, feeling for where the opening had been, he couldn’t sense any remnant of the living flame that burned inside his soul.
There was a taste of cold ashes in his mouth, a sensation of darkness and old, stale air. It made his mind want to move on, to leave this place of old rocks and shadows behind—but instead of giving in to that urge, he forced himself to focus.
It was a trick. Some sort of defense mechanism put in place by a fire dragon far stronger than Braeden had been.
But that had changed. Braeden had been chosen by the element of fire as its new champion.
He set his senses against the shadows that wanted to distract his mind. He could have burned straight through the defenses—but he wanted to avoid alerting anyone of his presence.
He had been set a clear task: find and disable Steele, the leader of the fire dragons.
Braeden didn’t even know if this was where Steele had gone into hiding. There were secret lairs all over the place. He himself knew of at least six locations and wouldn’t be surprised if there were two times as many.
But this place was a start. And perhaps, once he was inside, he’d be able to find information on Steele, even if the dangerous shifter wasn’t here.
Everything was silent when Braeden finally reached the side of the mountain.
He placed a hand against the rock, feeling for the opening he’d seen earlier.