“As much as I would like to just stay here and kiss you all night, it might be best that I get up and start dinner,” Connor said, breathing the words more than really saying them.
“You are probably right,” Emily replied. “I’m going to go to the bathroom for a moment and freshen up if that’s okay. Where is it?”
“Right through there,” Connor told her, pointing down the lone hallway that ran back toward the two bedrooms of the small cabin. “First door on the right.”
“Perfect,” she replied.
“Yes, you are,” he observed with a grin, letting go of her hand reluctantly.
When she came back, he was in the middle of chopping vegetables for dinner. She stepped up behind him and put her arms around his waist, hugging him to her for just a moment before letting go and stepping around to his side. He could see that she had brushed her hair and touched up her smeared lipstick. She looked beautiful, though he liked her messy, just as well.
“I hope you aren’t allergic to anything,” he told her.
“This doesn’t look like frozen pizza,” she said with a chuckle as she scanned the makings of his planned dinner spread out in front of him.
“Well, I might be able to cook a bit,” he said, playing down his cooking skills.
“Yeah?” she asked, seeming surprised.
“I own a local health store. Part of my education consisted of nutrition and preparation of healthy meals.”
“So, you are a trained nutritionist then?” she marveled.
“Yes. That is what I am,” he chuckled.
“You probably don’t even eat frozen pizza,” she laughed.
“I prefer not to, but I have my fat days like anyone else where I want to eat something that is completely bad for me. I’d rather have a fresh pizza if I have the time to make one, though.”
“Oh, I like you even more now. A man that can cook rather than ordering take out all the time.”
“You could do worse,” he replied with a wink, before tossing the vegetables in a wok with the chicken that had just finished browning. Adding some black bean sauce, he stirred it a bit before stepping over to retrieve plates and wine glasses from a nearby cabinet.
“Red or white?” he asked, pointing toward the small wine rack on the counter with a half dozen bottles of wine.
“Oh, I have no clue what sort of wine pairs with stir fry. I’m far from a wine expert,” she said, seeming embarrassed by it.
“Me neither. They didn’t teach us that in classes. Which do you prefer?”
“Red!” she said enthusiastically.
“Red, it is then,” he replied, pulling a bottle from the rack and sitting it to one side while he returned to the stir fry.
“That smells delicious,” she said, looking into the wok. “I’ll set the table.”
“That would be great,” he replied, lifting the handle and tossing the vegetables about for a moment before moving them into a large, glass bowl. He pulled the spring rolls he had placed in the oven out and sat them on another plate with two small finger bowls of sweet chili sauce and carried it to the table.
“Oh, yum. Spring rolls too?”
“I’m afraid those are the frozen kind, but they are very good ones. We buy them all the time. This isn’t the most glamorous meal, but it’s quick and easy. Hopefully, you will like it,” he told her, putting the dishes on the table and retrieving flatware and a corkscrew from a nearby drawer.
As he poured each of them a glass of wine, Emily sat down adjacent to him so that their legs brushed against one another’s beneath the table. Conversation turned toward Aiden as they ate.
“My aunt says that I should stay away from Aiden. She said that he’s a horrible person.”
“He is.”
“Yeah, but she didn’t really say why. I mean, even meeting him the once, he gave me a creepy vibe, but why does everyone think he is such a bad leader?”
“Our old one, Tomalin, was near death. Though things had been peaceful here for years, he had seen many battles before that time, and they had taken their toll on his health. He had called my father and the Council to his bedside, announcing that he intended to appoint my father as his successor. No one had ever challenged him, and now that he was too sick to fight, it was forbidden. So, he had selected his replacement.”
“But your father died before he could take his place?” she asked.
“Yes. He was killed even before Tomalin passed away and, by that point, the leader was too weak to even make another selection. So, the Council stepped in and made Aiden the new leader. Some say there was bribery involved, but others just chalk it up to my father and Aiden having been close and him being the natural next choice.”
“Your father and Aiden were more than just acquaintances then?” she asked.
“You could say that. They had a history. My father knew what Aiden was, even as far back as when he was a child since my father was a good bit older. Aiden isn’t much older than Owen and I. I think their friendship was more about keeping your enemies closer than friends than anything else.”
“It seems like a strange pairing,” she replied, taking a bite of one of the spring rolls as she squinted toward him, keenly interested.
“I suppose it is, but there were reasons for it. I guess we all have that one friend that no one really can understand why we hang out together. Mine is Owen,” he said with a laugh.
“I think that Owen has a lot more friends than anyone realizes. I haven’t met anyone that dislikes him, though they all comment on his sadness,” she said.
Connor took a sip of wine and nodded. It was no secret that Owen had emotional issues, and there were very few in the town that weren’t aware of them. Margaret’s parents had long since moved away, unable to bear being near where they had lost her. They had initially blamed Owen for her death and that, no doubt, had gone a long way toward his continued self-blame. Even once they had come around and apologize for their treatment of him, it did nothing to change how he felt about himself.
“He does. I think he knows that. He just can’t bring himself to get close to anyone these days.”
“Understandable,” she replied, her melancholy apparent.
“Anyway, Aiden has been brutal in the way he handles the people here. He makes laws and rules that keep them from prospering financially. All housing additions have to be approved by the Council, and they rarely allow anything to pass because it doesn’t suit Aiden’s agenda. He won’t let certain businesses open if they compete with one of those owned by himself or his cronies, so there is no competition for the high prices they charge. Cross him, and you get exiled or tossed in a dark hole, never to be seen again. That’s just the tip of the iceberg known as Aiden.”
“Wow. I had no idea,” she said, setting her wine glass down.
“Refill?” he asked, already reaching for the bottle to top up his own.
“Yes, please,” she replied.
Connor poured them each a glass of wine as they set about finishing their meal between conversations about some of Aiden’s antics in the village. Emily seemed shocked that he had gotten by with his behavior for so long.
“Why has no one challenged him?’
“I think it’s a mix of things. There has been peace for so long, no matter what the cost, that no one wants to break it. Plus, failure to take him down would end badly for their families. They are afraid that if they take him on and lose, their loved ones will suffer at his hands.”
“That is truly awful,” she replied.
“Yes, to put it mildly,” he told her.
Finishing up their meal, they did the dishes together before settling back onto the sofa to watch a movie. It felt incredibly comforting and wonderful to have Emily there with him, and before either realized it, they had fallen asleep together. It had been a perfect evening, in Connor’s opinion. Just having her with him seemed to be the response to a prayer he hadn’t even been aware he had needed answered.
CHAPTER 4
In the months that passed after that first night, Connor and Emily had become inseparable. He was completely mesmerized by her beauty and sense of adventure. There was not one doubt in his mind that they were meant for one another. His six-two frame towered over her tiny five-three. His brown eyes and brown hair seemed bland compared to the vivid colors of her flame-colored hair and sky-blue eyes. He knew women found him attractive, but now, she was the only one he wanted to notice him.
“Brother, snap out of it,” Owen said from where he sat at a table nearby.
“Sorry. I was thinking about Emily,” Connor said bashfully.
“When are you not?” Owen laughed.
“That’s an excellent point.” Connor laughed too.
“I swear you’ve become like a giddy schoolgirl since she showed up here.”
“You introduced me to her. Don’t think I didn’t see the smirk on your face when you brought her over.”
“I have no idea what you mean, brother. I was just trying to shirk having to show the new girl around.”
“Right,” Connor replied, eyeing his brother for a moment.
A sense of melancholy swept over him as he thought about Owen’s life and the sadness that seemed to engulf him all the time. It had been a long time since Connor’s brother had been interested in a woman, so it was probably true that he had not been interested in showing Emily around, but he also must have been able to see her for what she was: beautiful. That was the reason he had brought her to Connor rather than to someone else in their village.
“Yes. It is right,” Owen replied, not looking up from what he was working on.
Their conversation was disrupted by a knock on the door. They looked at each other curiously. Emily was away for a couple of days, visiting relatives, so it couldn’t be her. They rarely had visitors at home. Owen walked toward the door and opened it, looking at the small, frail man that stood on the other side in confusion.
“Owen and Connor McCord?” the man asked tentatively. He looked like he had exerted his last ounce of strength just knocking at their door.
Connor studied him for a moment. He was unshaven and unkempt, hunching over in that way that some older men seemed to as they aged. He might have been nice-looking, once upon a time, but he now looked haggard and weary. Even his clothes were worn through, as if he hadn’t bought anything new for years.
“That’s us,” Owen replied from the other side of the room. “What can we do for you?”
“You don’t know me, I know. My name is Liam Donnelly. I need to talk to the two of you,” the man croaked
“About what?” Owen replied, rising from the table to walk over by Connor.
“It’s, um, private. Can I come in? I can’t be seen here,” the man replied, his neck craning around toward the direction from which he had nervously came.
“Okay. Come on in,” Owen told him, waving him inside and closing the door behind him.
“Why can’t you be seen here?” Connor asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.
“Aiden. If he finds me here, he’ll kill me.” He hesitated for a moment before continuing. “Well, I don’t suppose that really matters at this point,” he added with a nervous laugh.
“I thought I knew everyone here, but I’ve never seen you before. How do you know Aiden?” Connor asked, suddenly even more curious about their strange visitor.
“I keep a very low profile. I’m the one that remains in the shadows and does what needs to be done,” Liam said wearily.
“What does that mean, exactly?” Owen asked, his eyes narrowed to study him as he spoke.
The brothers stood looking down on the old man a bit menacingly. Something about him didn’t quite feel right. Aiden wasn’t exactly high on their list of allies. Though he was the dragon leader, they stayed away from him as much as possible. Rumors had long alluded to the fact that he was involved in the death of their father, and possibly the previous dragon leader whom he had replaced, but only because he had been the last to see him alive, or so it seemed.
“Look, it doesn’t matter who I am, really. What is important is why I have come here to talk to you. Can we just sit down for a bit? I’m old and not well. It took most of my energy just to walk here,” Liam told them.
“Sure, have a seat, Mr. Donnelly,” Owen said, waving toward the chairs around the kitchen table.
The old man hobbled toward the table, almost collapsing into it. He seemed to gasp for each breath of air he drew as he sat there for a moment in silence. Owen remained standing, arms folded neatly across his chest as he studied Liam. Though both he and Connor didn’t really see him as a threat at this point, both knew that whatever his purpose was in coming here was something that wasn’t going to set well with them. Anything that involved Aiden rarely did.
“Do you need something to drink, Mr. Donnelly?” Connor asked.
“I would appreciate that. Just some water would be nice. I’m pretty parched.”
“No problem,” he told him, feeling more sympathetic than anything else at the moment.
Connor walked over to the fridge and retrieved a bottle of ice-cold water, handing it to the beleaguered old man, and sitting down across from him. Owen finally pulled up a chair nearby, silently waiting for Liam to finish drinking some of the water and gather himself.
“First, let me tell you how very sorry I am about all of this. I should have come here years ago, but I was afraid,” Liam said.
“Afraid of what?’ Connor asked curiously.
“Aiden. You’ve no idea just how dangerous he is,” Liam told them with a loud sigh.
“Why don’t you tell us, then?” Owen said, the disdain evident in his tone.
“Very well. I’ll get right to it then and say what I came here to say before I lose my nerve. I was there the day your father died. There is more to his death than anyone knows about,” Liam said quietly.
Connor looked at him, his eyes narrowing to thin slits as he tried to determine what the old man was up to, but before he could ask, the man dropped a bombshell on them.
“Aiden was there, too. I saw him kill your father,” Liam finished, almost blurting out what he had come to say as if to just expel it from his system quickly like it was some malignancy that had been left to grow and pollute his system over the years.
“What?” Connor roared, up and out of his chair like a shot.
His anger getting the best of him, he yanked the old man up by his collar, shaking him as if the answers to any further questions would just fall out of his shirt or pants. Rather than looking terrified, Liam just looked resigned, dangling like he was nothing from Connor’s powerful hands. His blank stare was one of a man that had long ago lost his humanity and, even now, in this moment of redemption, he appeared an empty vessel.
“Connor, stop it! Put him down and let him finish,” Owen yelled at his brother.
“Not until he tells us what he saw,” Connor barked back, his face only growing redder with the rage that had come over him.
“I believe he was doing that before you started manhandling him. Put him down, brother,” Owen urged in an even tone, the voice of reason in a moment of haste.
Connor dropped the old man back down heavily into his seat. His frail body barely even made a sound, so light that he could have been a sack of feathers being tossed aside. Liam straightened up in the chair and took another sip of the water before speaking again. He didn’t appear shaken at all, just resigned to whatever fate he was dealt.
“Like I was saying, I was there when Aiden killed your father. We were on Sheep Island, where we had flown to find a shifter. Your father had been told the shifter killed a young woman in nearby Ballintoy Harbor. Aiden told him that the man was nursing an injured wing, the result of a gunshot from the woman’s brother when he had tried to stop the attack. He said he needed someone with your father’s special skills to help him bring the shifter in to stand trial. That was his excuse for getting him out there instead of taking the Dragon Guard.”
&nb
sp; “Our father died here, in the Mournes, not all the way up the coast on Sheep Island,” Connor said flatly, trying to get control over the anger that he still felt welling up inside of him.
“No. Your father fought his way all the way from Sheep Island to the Isle of Man and back to the Mournes, where Aiden finished him off while he was still weak. Your father was still alive when he crawled from the sea and collapsed on the beach.”
“That’s impossible,” Connor said. “Our father was very powerful. He was to be the dragon leader. Tomalin hand-selected him as his replacement, but then my father died before he did. So, Aiden was selected by the council after Tomalin passed soon after. Dad was bigger and stronger than Aiden, but he was gone. Aiden bullied and bribed them like he does everyone.”
“Yes, all of that is true. In a fair fight, your father would have taken him out. I have no doubt of that, and neither did Aiden. The truth is that your father was poisoned. It was placed in a bowl of soup earlier in the day, before he was summoned to come to Sheep Island by Aiden.”
“What are you talking about? How do you know this?” Connor snarled.
“Because I am the one that Aiden sent to deliver the soup to your family. I was relieved to find that your mother had taken you both out for a day in the city with friends. I had no desire to harm women and children. Aiden hadn’t known you would be gone. He had intended to kill all of you, but with you away, only your father ate it. It turned out that he was stronger than expected. At first, it seemed to have no effect on him at all, then he was only weakened by it. Still, he didn’t refuse when Aiden asked for his help on Sheep Island.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. How could he think he would have gotten by with killing our entire family?” Connor asked, his anger mounting once again.
“I don’t know. He has friends everywhere. I’m sure he had made arrangements for the coroner to say it was merely food poisoning. Botulism or some such thing. You have to understand that I only did what Aiden told me to do. I was rarely privy to his entire plan unless it was necessary for me to know.”
Betrayed by a Dragon: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Exiled Dragons Book 1) Page 3