by Leela Ash
Protected by the Dragon
Banished Dragons 3
Leela Ash
Copyright ©2018 by Leela Ash. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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STONYBROOKE SHIFTERS
DADDY SHIFTER’S VIRGIN
A SECRET BABY FOR THE SHIFTER
THE SHIFTER’S MAIL ORDER VIRGIN
DADDY SHIFTER’S FAKE FIANCE
THE SEAL SHIFTER’S SECRET BABY
CLAIMED BY THE ALPHA DADDY
NANNY TO THE SHIFTER
THE SHIFTER PROTECTOR’S VIRGIN
SECOND CHANCE WITH THE SHIFTER
OAK MOUNTAIN SHIFTERS
HER BILLIONAIRE SHIFTER BOSS
HER SECRET PROTECTOR BEAR
A SECRET BABY FOR DADDY BEAR
THE ALPHA’S MAIL ORDER BRIDE
THE ALPHA DADDY’S NANNY
BANISHED DRAGONS
CAPTIVE TO THE DRAGON
DESTINED FOR THE DRAGON
DRAGONS OF KALDERNON
THE DRAGONS OF KALDERNON COMPLETE SERIES
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…and if you are interested, here is another series from Totally Romance Publishing that I think you may enjoy!
THE LOST CREEK SHIFTERS
The Lost Creek Shifters series is a collection of novelette length standalone Bad boy romances that fit together to tell the longer story of the ancient tale of the bear and wolf shifters in a small mountain town. Enjoy!
ARLO (Book 1)
SCAR (Book 2)
BLU (Book 3)
BODHI (Book 4)
KODHI (Book 5)
ZEKE (Book 6)
Table of Contents
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17.
SHIFTER HEAVEN BOX SET PREVIEW
1.
“Remember, ladies, make sure to hone your intent!”
Mia smiled at the instructor and glanced at her friend. Yes. Hone her intent. She had to think long and hard about what it was she truly wanted in a man. Were good looks more important than charisma? Or a good heart? Maybe she valued physical strength and prowess more than kindness?
Mia shook her head. No. She could have all of those things. She would put them each on the list.
Without a second thought, she grabbed her pen and pulled the notebook closer to her body to guard it from the prying eyes of anybody else at the ‘Manifesting Your Perfect Match’ workshop.
I want a considerate, caring beast of a man.
Mia looked down at the words, a small smile playing on her lips as she thought about everything she had always desired in a mate.
With beautiful eyes. Mysterious. Open-minded to the mystical and paranormal. Someone who will be entirely devoted to me. Successful at anything he takes on. Who likes to travel and explore new and mysterious places. Must like dragons.
Mia read the words over and over again, her mind wandering. She was tired of the run of the mill man. She was sick of wasting time with people who didn’t share her passions, even down to her quirk of always being drawn to dragons. She was going to be as specific as possible to manifest the mate of her dreams.
Yes. She was tired of straight-laced guys who only wanted her for sex and arm candy. She wasn’t exactly a knockout, but she got her fair share of male attention. But nobody had ever been a good fit.
“Are you done?” Cindy asked, glancing over at Mia. “Can I read your list?”
“No, you can’t read my list!” Mia exclaimed. “It will weaken the vibrations, remember?”
Cindy scoffed. “Just because the instructor said it doesn’t mean it’s true.”
“Well, just in case it is, I don’t want you reading it,” Mia said, covering her words protectively. Maybe some part of her was slightly embarrassed. She had always been into dragons and it seemed like such a funny and weird thing to desire in the opposite sex. But she stood firm on it.
“Fine,” Cindy grumbled. “Then you can’t read mine either.”
“I don’t want to ruin your chance of finding the guy you’re writing about,” Mia said pointedly. “So, don’t ruin mine either. You know we have both been single for way too long.”
“It’s a small pond around here,” Cindy agreed, looking back down at her paper. “It’s hard to be romantically compatible with people who already know everything about you.”
“You mean people who think they know everything about you,” Mia pointed out. Her crystal blue eyes flashed in agitation. Nobody had ever actually known everything about her. They rarely even had the basics down right. Just speculations.
“Right,” Cindy said. “I really hope there’s something to this.”
“You saw the testimonials,” Mia said, holding on to the small but fierce hope that she had stumbled upon something that would change the course of her romantic future forever. She had really been wishing for companionship over the past few years. Especially after having her daughter grow up without a father. She wanted this just as much for her child as she did for herself. “It works. And it works well.”
“Just like every other crazy new age thing you drag me along to,” Cindy said with a snort. “Remember that time you took us to the ‘Healing Henna’ workshop and we both had an allergic reaction to the stuff?”
“Look, just because the person giving the workshop was incompetent and bought cheap product from a third-rate seller doesn’t mean there isn’t something behind the idea. It could work perfectly well, for all we know.”
“Spending six hours in the emergency room with you was the opposite of ‘healing,’ Mia,” Cindy said, shaking her head. Still, she smiled. She never turned down a chance for adventure, and Mia was full of those types of opportunities. “You’re probably the weirdest person I’ve ever known.”
Mia sighed.
And a little weird.
With the amendment made to her list, she beamed up at the instructor and closed her notebook. “Done!”
“Great! We’ll take another five minutes to think about what we’ve written and set our intentions. Is everybody ready for a chance to change their lives?”
Mia nodded eagerly, smiling at Cindy broadly. Her friend couldn’t help but smile back. If nothing else, this was one of the more harmless schemes that Mia had gotten her in on.
“Ready,” Cindy and Mia said together.
In fact, Mia was more than ready. She had been so consumed by the pressures of being a single mother and having to deal with the world’s worst boss. She had worked for terrible people before, but none of them compared to Tyler-no-soul. He seemed to see her only as a body to get things done and resented her deeply because she was a single mother who had a young daughter. Even though Mia had always done everything possible not to allow her parenting to interfere with work, the man still didn’t seem to care. He was a pain in the ass and gave her hell any time h
e was in a bad mood.
Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if Mia was really in the career path of her choosing, but unfortunately, she had gotten roped into this job in high school and had kept it because it gave her security and benefits when nothing else could.
Now, though, she wished she had gone to school and followed her dream of becoming a wellness coach. Mia had always been drawn to the possibility of being able to help others and get them back on track when everything around them seemed hopeless. In fact, she had always had kind of a natural gift for helping to lift the spirits of others and remember their own potential. It was something she had always been secretly proud of.
Instead, she was stuck in the marketing department of a small but successful firm, run by one of the biggest douche bags of the century. She had worked her way up into a decent position with a high enough wage that she was able to support her daughter on her own, but it kept her away from home longer than she liked to be. She wouldn’t have been able to do a damn thing if it weren’t for her mother. Her mom was always there to watch Jewel and keep her safe when Mia had to work.
“All right, everyone. Close your eyes. It’s time to begin.”
Mia grinned and did as she was told. Life was what you made of it, and she was going to make it the best she possibly could. Not only for herself but for her daughter as well. It was time to set her intention.
2.
Rhett frowned down at the device in his hand. It was always acting up. He was shocked that it had helped to lead them to even one of the descendants, let alone two. It was unlikely to work so well a third time.
“Gavin, you’re better at things from our home world. Why do you want me to fix this stupid thing?”
“You have skills of your own as well, Rhett. I’m not sure why you don’t give yourself enough credit.”
“He’s better at human stuff,” TJ said, slapping Rhett’s shoulder as he passed. “Give the guy a break.”
“This is definitely not human stuff,” Rhett said, sighing as he sank heavily onto the couch and turned the device over to examine it closely. “This is the farthest thing from human technology as it gets, and frankly, it’s starting to piss me off.”
“Why?” Gavin asked, looking up from his book suddenly and frowning. “You fixed it last time when I couldn’t. Can’t you do it again?”
“It’s pissing me off because of the incessant beeping,” Rhett sighed. “When I’m trying to figure out what to do with it, there is always beeping.”
Gavin grinned. “Oh. Right.”
Rhett glowered. That was exactly the reason why Gavin had pawned the device off on him. But if he didn’t fix it, then they would fail the very important mission of protecting the Sun Dragon/Loni hybrids from the hands of men who wanted nothing more than to harm them. It was of utmost importance to ensure the continuation of the bloodline. Not only for their own protection, but because, without these special beings in existence, the magic of the shifter worlds could easily be lost. And that would be devastating in ways that Rhett couldn’t even begin to fathom.
“You’ll get it, man,” TJ said, slapping Rhett on the shoulder. “I have faith in you.”
“Thanks,” Rhett mumbled. He sighed heavily and popped a flashing red sphere out of place, then stuck it back in again. The beeping stopped, almost miraculously.
“See, we knew you could do it,” Gavin said, without even looking up from his book.
Rhett sighed and stood, heading to his bedroom in an attempt to hide his irritation. He sat the device down on the desk, now fully in working order. At least, for the moment. When they needed it to be tended to again, he knew who they were going to come to.
Until then, though, he had plenty of projects to deal with on his own time. The last house their moving company had dealt with had left behind a whole variety of human technologies for him to deal with, so he was excited to get a chance to begin taking them apart and putting them back together again to get a sense of the way things worked in the human world. There was nothing more fascinating to him than learning about how certain technologies were able to come together and create functioning objects.
“Rhett! Come back out here! Max is here.”
Rhett looked up suddenly, startled by the appearance of the man who had been considered the leader of the dragon shifter group that had been banished to Earth.
“Max, huh?” he mumbled, putting down his latest project – a remote control to who knew what – and heading out the door.
“Rhett, we have good news for you,” Max said immediately upon spotting Rhett. “You are in for a treat.”
“A treat?” Rhett asked. He glanced around the living room, where the other dragon shifters had suddenly congregated at Max’s arrival.
“Sit down, there is much to discuss.”
Rhett sighed and sank back down onto the couch, eyeing Max and the others dubiously. They were all smiling in a way that was making him feel very uncomfortable. What exactly did they have up their sleeves?
“What’s going on,” Rhett asked, his eyes darting nervously from face to face. It was as if they were all in on something that he had no idea about, and he didn’t like it at all. Had he forgotten his own birthday or something? That had happened to Gavin just a few months ago and they had all ambushed him with a surprise party sort of like this.
But there were no streamers. No balloons. No human-esque cake or other decorations to try to make them appear more normal, despite their alien status on Earth. So, what was it then?
Finally, Max rounded the couch to stand in front of Rhett.
“You are going to get a girlfriend!” he said excitedly, thrusting a paper in front of Rhett’s face.
“A what?” Rhett asked, taking the paper and scowling. “I don’t want a girlfriend.”
“But this is exactly the type of thing we have been waiting for! You know how difficult it can be to track down the potential descendants with the machine breaking down all the time. And the pool of women in this place is rather small, at least, when you are out and about. You don’t know who has been claimed already, or what. But here, all the women will be looking for someone. They are all single. All potentials! In one room!”
Rhett stared dubiously at the paper in his hand. It was a bright, colorful flier, advertising for a speed dating event to be held about twenty minutes from their home in a little lodge he had never heard of before. The flier promised great fun and excitement; prospects to bring lasting happiness to all involved. But Rhett had his doubts.
“You think potentials with wise Loni blood would go to something like this?” he asked, shaking his head. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Rhett, don’t you get it? You will be able to scan the room for all sorts of potentials,” Gavin exclaimed. “It could cut the work we do down in half if you find anyone!”
Rhett sighed heavily, his stomach knotted. “I don’t know… I have a lot going on. Isn’t there someone else who can do this?”
“No. You are the best candidate right now. Carter is out of the running. He already met his fated mate. Now, it is your turn. Aren’t you excited?” Max stared earnestly at Rhett, who returned the gaze with a deep frown. “I thought you would be excited.”
“I don’t even know what ‘speed dating’ is,” Rhett complained. “This doesn’t sound like something we learned about from the movies and research. I am uncomfortable with it. It is too different and too new. How do you know I won’t mess it up?”
“We have confidence in you, brother,” Max said, slapping Rhett’s shoulder hard. Rhett winced but kept his gaze locked on Max’s. “Trust us when we say that, right now, you are the most viable candidate. Everyone has a lot going on right now.”
“I have things I’m doing too,” Rhett mumbled.
“Yes, you are learning. And it is quite valuable. But there is a greater purpose for our being here. Is that not obvious to you yet? Two of us have found fated mates. We have begun to help to keep the bloodline of the ancients alive, so the
shifter magic will not fade from the universe. Isn’t that more important than sitting in your bedroom, tinkering with microwave ovens?”
Rhett wanted to be offended, but when he thought about it, he knew Max was right.
“I suppose so,” he mumbled, frowning down at the flier in his hand. Speed dating, though? It just seemed so weird. So impersonal. What was he even going to encounter when he got to the lodge? A room full of random human women that he would have to try to get scans of, so they might be able to sift through the potential descendants and identify them more easily?
“You know it’s more likely for you to find your fated one this way,” Max said, nodding sagely. There will be many females there, many of whom are going to be in search of a fated mate for themselves as well. And if you find that connection, you will never be lonely again.”
The words struck Rhett with a strange sense of sadness. Each of them had felt lonely here on Earth, where none of their customs and traditions were observed. He knew they had all suffered tremendously, and although their suffering was similar, it was also deeply individual. They each had families that were still on Fiora. Friends and loved ones they were missing. A sense of loss so deep and all-encompassing that they had a difficult time moving forward in their new lives on Earth. Even now. After several years of banishment.
It had been especially traumatic for the six of them because they had been high-ranking and honorable officials with their entire lives ahead of them. To be falsely accused and convicted of criminal intent had devastated their pride, and the respect they had worked so hard to earn. Usually, the Elders were able to see past deceit, so it was very strange to Rhett to think that they would somehow find it impossible to prove their innocence. He had even begun to suspect that perhaps the Elders did know the men were innocent. But then why would they have banished them to a strange world like Earth, where their shifter magic was so misunderstood and feared? Why would everything be so hopeless in terms of returning back to the world they knew.