Betrayed by a Dragon: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Exiled Dragons Book 1)

by Sarah J. Stone

  “And you did this knowing that he was being set up? Knowing that he was being poisoned? Knowing that you were helping to try and kill an entire family?”

  “Yes,” Liam replied evenly.

  “How does that make you any less of a monster than Aiden?” Connor asked.

  He cast a sideways glance toward Owen, noting how incredibly quiet he was during all of this. It was his usual nature, but the expression revealed that he was anything but ambivalent about what was being said. He wore his anger on is face like a mask of ill will. Still, he remained silent and allowed Connor to take the lead.

  “It doesn’t. I know that I am guilty of many sins.”

  “Is that all you have to tell us then?” Connor growled at him.

  “No. The poison used on your father was the same poison he used later on with Tomalin, only a heftier dose. He didn’t want to risk him surviving it as your father had. Once he had failed with your father, he made other plans to take advantage of his weakened state. It would have been harder to employ a backup plan with the dragon leader if he wasn’t successful the first go. The idea with him was to make sure he died quickly. Tomalin was on the precipice by then anyway, so no one questioned it.”

  Much to Connor’s surprise, it was then that Owen decided he had heard enough without asking his own questions. He stepped forward and glared at Liam as he spoke.

  “How did you see him kill our father if they were fighting their way back from Sheep Island, out into the sea to Isle of Man and then back onto the Mourne coast?” Owen demanded.

  “As I said, your father was still alive when he reached the coast. He had gone into the water, badly injured, and managed to drag himself out of the sea and onto the beach. I was standing on the cliffs above and saw Aiden as he swooped in for the final kill, snapping his neck and leaving him lying there on the sand. He came up with the story about your father being attacked by an unknown dragon shifter and left for dead.”

  “That seems like such a far-fetched story. Why would no one in the Council have questioned it, looked into it further?” Owen prodded further.

  “It tied into what Aiden had said they were doing that day: pursuing a killer,” Liam replied in a tired voice.

  “The man that had killed the woman at Ballintoy Harbor,” Connor observed.

  “Yes. The facts backed up his claims. There was a woman who was murdered that day at the harbor, and her attacker was shot, but contrary to belief, he was not wounded.”

  “I don’t understand. I thought Aiden made up that story to get our father to the island.”

  “Then you are not listening to me, and you have not yet accepted what Aiden is capable of doing. He is the one that killed the woman in Ballintoy Harbor. He is the one that was shot at, but he was not hit. He feigned injury to his arm as he ran away, waited until he was out of the man’s sight to shift, and returned home.”

  “Wait. Aiden attacked the woman in human form? Why did the man not recognize and identify him? And why would he have thought it was a shifter?” Connor asked, not following the story.

  “That is where the hole in Aiden’s story lies. He made that part up in order to get your father on board with following him to Sheep Island.”

  “It makes no sense,” Owen said, his expression revealing that he, too, was struggling to wrap his head around things.

  “You have to remember that it was a hastily put together plan, so he made mistakes, but essentially, he knew that no one from the village would go asking questions of the man at the harbor. It would have only put more attention on the situation to do so. The local authorities that actually did investigate it wouldn’t have involved our village, because they had no reason to tie any of us to the incident.”

  “Then why kill the woman at all?” Connor asked, confused.

  “That I can’t tell you. I suspect that it is probably just a matter of news coverage. It would have been all over the news that there was a fugitive on the run after killing a woman, so it gave it an air of legitimacy that it needed.”

  “But the reports would have made it clear that it wasn’t a shifter,” Owen remarked, obviously still not believing the story entirely.

  “Yes, they did. Aiden took credit for keeping the true nature of the crime out of the news by greasing the right palms and promising to bring the killer to justice himself. Do you understand now?”

  “I understand completely. You helped murder our father and then protected Aiden while he reaped the benefits,” Connor shouted at him.

  Connor’s fists unclenched and his body vibrated. He could feel himself shifting, but he was called back by the sound of Owen’s voice.

  “Stop, Connor. Just wait,” Owen said to his brother before turning back to Liam. “So, you helped Aiden kill our father and Tomalin, and now you’ve come to confess your sins…and his. Why?”

  “I’ve carried this weight around with me for years. I don’t want to take it with me into eternity,” Liam said in a tired voice.

  “And you think that telling us about it absolves you of your part in it somehow?” Connor said angrily, still struggling to control himself.

  “No. I don’t think that at all, but I can die knowing that I helped you to see the truth. Hopefully, you can find a way to stop Aiden before he hurts anyone else. You aren’t the only family he’s harmed, and there will be others unless he is stopped.”

  “You are going to come with us to the Council. You are going to tell them all of this,” Owen said.

  “No. I can’t do that,” Liam said, shaking his head from side to side

  “What do you mean you can’t do that?” Connor demanded.

  “If he knows that I told you, he will come after me, but he won’t kill me. Instead, he will make me watch while he kills my family, one by one, in front of me. My wife, my daughters, my grandchildren.”

  Though Connor could see the fear on the man’s face, he wasn’t moved by it in the least. Why should he care about what happened to this man’s loved ones when he had been complicit in the death of his father, an innocent man who had done nothing but good for his people before his death?

  “Are you sure you aren’t just protecting your own selfish hide?” Connor barked at him.

  “There is nothing of me to protect. I’m dying. I won’t last out the next few months, in all likelihood. I don’t care if he kills me off early. It will only save me the pain of my final days. I do care about those I love, and I know that the two of you don’t want innocents killed on top of everything else he has done.”

  “So, you think you can just come here and tell us something like this without us taking it up with the Council?” Connor asked.

  “The Council can’t help you. They are old and complacent. Even if I went to them and told them the truth, they would look the other way. They are scared of Aiden, too. They have families to protect, as well.”

  “Then what do you suggest we do? Just live with knowing he killed Dad and Tomalin?” Owen asked, his anger seething through his clenched teeth as he spoke.

  “No. I suggest that you take your rightful place, Owen. Your father was killed so that Aiden could take his place as the new leader. You should challenge him and take him down, take his place.”

  “You know I’m not nearly strong enough to take down Aiden. You have been in his close employ, seen him in action while many have not. He has skills many of us don’t possess.”

  “They can be overcome if you go about it the right way. You could take him, if you tried, if you trained. It’s the best way to protect others from him and take him out of power permanently.”

  The exchange was interrupted as Connor stomped over to the front door and yanked it open, jerking his head toward the opening as he spoke.

  “Get out of our house,” Connor yelled at Liam. “Get out while I’m still willing to let you leave in one piece.

  The man seemed unfettered by the threat. It was obvious that he was resigned to his fate, whatever it might be, and he had come here to do what he i
ntended to do. Connor doubted it would bring him the peace he might have anticipated, but he didn’t really care about that at all.

  “I understand. I will go. Still, I beg of you not to do anything that will harm my family,” Liam said as he slowly stood and made his way toward the open door.

  “We don’t care anymore about your family than you cared about ours,” Connor told him. “I suggest you get them far away from here before daylight if you want to save them. We are going to the Council first thing tomorrow. What happens from there will be up to them.”

  The old man sighed loudly and nodded in understanding. He paused as he stood outside of it and looked back at them as if he wanted to say something else, but instead, he walked away into the darkness.

  Sometime in the quiet of that night, the Donnelly family disappeared. Neither Donnelly, nor any member of his family could be found the next day. Despite what he had said about not caring, Connor hoped the old man had managed to get them far away before Aiden could discover his betrayal. What happened to Liam Donnelly was of no consequence, but his family, like Connor and Owen’s father, had done nothing to deserve Aiden’s wrath.

  CHAPTER 5

  With the elderly Donnelly gone, the two brothers sat down on opposite ends of the sofa and talked about what they had just learned. It was obvious that each of them was a bit shell shocked by the news, but they would have to shake that off and decide what to do about the situation.

  “We only have two choices, Connor,” Owen told him.

  “I know. Either let the Council handle it, or challenge him for leadership,” Connor said, still angry, but trying to calm himself in order to think straight.

  “I really want to do to him what he did to our father. Do you think that if I trained properly, I could take him down?” Owen asked.

  It was unusual to hear Owen seem so unsure about his skills as a dragon. He was one of the most powerful ones in the village, but he had never had to test his abilities in a real-world battle with another dragon. The extent of his current training was within well-defined parameters against opponents who adhered to the same rules and limitations.

  “Maybe. I don’t know, brother, but we aren’t talking about some showmanship event set up to determine who is a better flyer or who can breathe fire the farthest. It’s a real battle, to the death. If you make a mistake, no one takes away points. The penalty is much more severe. Are you ready to possibly give your life to avenge Dad’s murder?”

  “It’s about much more than that, though, isn’t it? You and I both know the rules. If I challenge him and win, then I walk away as the new leader. That’s a lot of responsibility.”

  “And if you don’t challenge him for leadership, if we just attack him without proof of his crime, we will be punished as if we committed a crime. So, if we are going after him, it has to be to pursue his position of power. Our clan will support that. Otherwise, we will be written off as criminals, and Mom will suffer, both socially and possibly worse, at the hands of Aiden without us around to protect her,” Connor replied solemnly.

  “Then we need to find a way to prove what he did. If the Council unseats him, they will be the ones to issue his punishment, and there will be an appointment of a new leader to take his place. No more blood need be shed over this,” Owen said, though his tone said he wasn’t quite convinced he could let it go down like that.

  “Okay. How do we do that?” Connor asked.

  “The man…the one in Ballintoy Harbor. I wonder if he could identify Aiden after all these years,” Owen said suddenly.

  “It’s a long shot, but it might be our best shot. Let’s see if we can find his name,” Connor said, already on his feet and retrieving his laptop from a nearby desk.

  The two of them sat down and opened up a search page to look for the incident, slowly tracing their way from the report of a death to the aftermath of the investigation. Both looked at one another, puzzled by the information they were seeing.

  “It says that the woman’s husband identified the attacker as a short, husky male with brown eyes and brown hair, no distinguishing marks or clothing that he could readily recall. Pretty vague description for someone who killed your wife, someone you pursued and shot at.”

  “Vague, maybe, but the real problem is that it sounds nothing like Aiden,” Owen observed gloomily.

  “There is something wrong with the story. It doesn’t add up,” Connor told him.

  “See if we can find the husband. Where does he live?” Owen asked.

  “Here it is. Alton Downs. He is the owner of a bed and breakfast not far from the harbor. I wonder if he still runs it,” Connor replied, already searching for the location of the B&B on the map.

  “There it is!” Owen said, pointing to it in the search results. “There’s a website.”

  Connor felt like some sort of amateur sleuth trying to solve a murder mystery with his brother. It was like when they were kids, reading serial books out loud in their rooms from beneath a tent made of chairs and blankets. Except this was not pretend, it was real, and the consequences could be quite grave if they didn’t find what they were looking for before going to the Council.

  “Got it. It’s not terribly late. Should we give him a call?” Connor asked as he opened the website and found the contact details, which showed him as still being the current owner.

  “No. I think a more personal visit is in order. It’s dark outside. We’ll just go around the edge of the coast rather than over land where we will be easier to spot,” Owen told him, already up and waiting for him to do join him.

  “I don’t know. What do we say? It’s going to be tricky asking a human about a shifter if he’s not even aware we exist. We will sound like a couple of nut jobs to him.”

  “My gut tells me it won’t be a problem. I have a feeling that he knows a lot more than what he’s said. If what Donnelly told us was the truth, then he purposely misled the authorities for a reason. Aiden got to him, somehow. I’m sure of it.”

  “I guess we best get going if we are going to catch him at a still decent hour then,” Connor shrugged.

  The brother slipped out of their cabin and made a hasty trek toward the more remote cliffs where Owen liked to roam. It was best that no one see them take flight and ask questions they might not be able to answer right now. Past the trees, they arrived at the open top of the mountain and shifted, a large orange dragon and a slightly larger red one soaring off into the night.

  An hour later, they were touching down quietly near the caves that flanked one side of Ballintoy Harbor, and walking around the winding road that led toward the highway. It added some time to their trip, but there was less of a chance of being seen by arriving in the deserted harbor. The view of Sheep Island, just off the coast of the harbor now, seemed quite ominous as they made their way upward along the road.

  Knocking on the door of the bed and breakfast nestled into an overhanging cliff near the road, Connor suddenly realized that it must provide a perfect view of the harbor and the island from its rear. He turned to say something to Owen but could see from the look on his face that he had also come to the same conclusion.

  “Can you imagine overlooking the place where your wife died all these years?” Connor said quietly, cutting off the remark quickly as the front door opened to reveal a middle-aged woman with a rotund face and hips that proclaimed her love of a plentiful plate.

  “Hello. Do you have a reservation?” she asked politely.

  “Reservation?” Connor asked, confused for a moment before snapping back to his senses. “Oh! No, we’ve come to see Mr. Downs about a personal matter.”

  “At this late hour? May I ask what it is concerning?” she asked.

  “We would prefer to speak to him, if that is okay,” Connor replied.

  “What are your names?” she asked, seeming a bit too protective.

  “Just tell him that it is about Eimear,” Owen told her flatly, his tone relaying that it should be her last question.

  The woma
n looked surprised, but did not move from her position blocking the door. She squinted at the two of them and asked one last question as she scanned them from head to toe. They were both caught by surprise.

  “Are you shifters?” she said, her voice almost a whisper.

  Connor and Owen exchanged a look, neither certain if it was a question they should answer. Luckily, they were saved from it by a male voice coming from behind her.

  “For God’s sake, Berta. Stop holding the door open and let the young men in,” he said.

  Berta made a clicking sound of dismay with her tongue and stepped back to let them in. The man who had spoken had not aged well, but was still recognizable from his photo in the newspaper clippings they had seen online regarding his wife’s murder.

  “We won’t take up much of your time, Mr. Downs. I know it’s late, but we just needed to ask you a few questions,” Connor told him.

  “Well, get on with it then,” the man said.

  “Could we speak privately?” Connor replied.

  “What’s this about?” the man replied, apparently not having already heard the conversation with the woman who had greeted them at the door.

  “It’s regarding some details of the incident with your deceased wife in the harbor,” Owen replied, coolly.

  Connor could tell Owen had taken an instant dislike to the man for some reason, but he wasn’t sure why. He had to say, though, that Owen’s instincts for people were usually spot on, and whatever his reason, it was best heeded.

  “You just met my wife at the door. Does she appear deceased?” the man replied.

  “Your first wife,” Owen told him in a sour tone.

  The man studied the two of them, taking in their size and muscular appearances for a moment. He cocked his head around them to make eye contact with his wife and something unspoken passed between them before he refocused on his unexpected visitors. His shoulders slumped in a defeated motion, and he nodded his head toward a nearby hallway.