The Dragon's Charm (Elemental Dragons Book 4)

by Emilia Hartley

  “I thought…” she struggled to catch her breath. “I thought it happened… over time. Like… a dragon man met a dragon lady…. They dated for a short while… and the bond grew with their relationship.”

  Kenji’s brow furrowed.

  “This feels way too fast,” she said, finally mastering her breathing. Morgan wanted to reach up and wrap her arms around his neck, pull him into another mind-blowing kiss, but she held back.

  Kenji’s touch on her lightened, barely a graze, and it made her ache. She didn’t want to hurt him. That was the last thing she wanted. But, he was still pulling away.

  “Don’t get me wrong.” Morgan fumbled to fill in the spaces and clear the air. “I’m not upset. This, what we have, it feels good. All I want is to… understand. How does it happen? Why? What put the bond between us?”

  Kenji’s touch settled back on her, fingers dancing down her shoulders as his eyes followed the connection of skin on skin.

  “But, I ruined your life. I’d understand if you don’t want to go through with this.”

  Morgan wanted to scream. “That’s not what I’m saying, you fool.”

  “Isn’t it on your mind? Doesn’t it bother you?”

  Not while she was with him. Nothing else in the world seemed to matter because when she had him by her side, she felt stronger than ever. The world would be conquerable if only he stayed beside her. She would work on rebuilding her dream once the chaos of the moment was over. Once she figured out how to manage the bond between them that urged her to lean into his body and made her crave his touch.

  “I’m with you from here on out, Kenji Miyazaki. You’re just going to have to deal with me.”

  He laughed, a sound that was half humor and half relieved sob. He let his head fall into her chest, his cheek pressed against her breast. She, in turn, wrapped her arms around him and held him. Memory of what Quinn Jenkins had said to her in the tiny home and the emotion that crept onto the woman’s face returned to Morgan. She had a feeling he’d been rejected once before and, perhaps, he expected her to reject him like Quinn might have.

  Her hands pulled back, moving to run up the smooth skin of his face. Only, it wasn’t so smooth in that moment. There’d been little time to shave recently and there was a dark stubble growing along his cheeks. Morgan found a strange satisfaction in scratching it. Kenji leaned into the touch and groaned in pleasure, making her smile.

  “Now,” she proclaimed. “Tell me how this bond works.”

  He explained what he knew and what he’d seen of other couples. It wasn’t like there was a beat up manual lying around for every dragon to read once he or she met their mate. It was a bit of a guessing game once the bond was realized. A lot of the time, the journey was personalized through each person’s healing or boundaries.

  “I thought similarly once,” Kenji admitted. “I’d fallen for someone and I thought, given time, the person would learn to love me in return and the bond would magically appear. Then, I met you and it hit me like a damned truck. It was a hit and run, really. I didn’t expect you to want to stay with me so I prepared myself for the worst.”

  Morgan opened her mouth to argue until she thought back. The idea of being near a dragon had bothered her. If he’d come out and told her about the bond, she would have panicked and run into the desert to live with her grieving father.

  Morgan had a thought that made her laugh. Kenji raised a brow in question.

  “I’m going to have to get my father to come home for you to meet him. I highly doubt you, a water dragon, would want to vacation in the desert.”

  A look of horror crossed his face for a brief moment and Morgan laughed harder. But, the laughter started to fade as voices grew near. The reality of their situation slammed into her. She wouldn’t be able to convince her father to visit of any of this kept up. Why would he come back to Elshaw when humans were being detained like dragons? When GOE was acting as if they were the final law of the land?

  This wouldn’t last forever, she reminded herself. This was only a moment in time, one the people around the Territory would rise above. She remembered where she was, in the heart of the dragons’ latest effort to make peace with their country, and realized it was a fresh start to a new future.

  One she was a part of.

  “I have a surprise for you,” Morgan confessed. “You’ll have to wait and see, but I’m sure you’ll love it.”

  Kenji didn’t know what to say. A series of expressions quickly shifted across his face, one bleeding into the other as he worked through her words. She didn’t offer an explanation, her lips pressed into a tight smile to keep from letting her secret out. She could offer something to this new world and it made her feel a part of it again.

  Kenji rose from his seat, his tall form towering over her as he leaned in. Morgan felt a chill race up her spine, anticipation flooding her. Her hands drifted to his broad shoulders, feeling the planes of the muscles beneath his shirt.

  Her eyes darted behind him, to the door with a giant window in it. “Pull the blinds down on that.”

  Excitement flashed in his eyes and he jumped away for only a moment, the opaque canvas dropping to cover any passing eyes. He returned to her arms, placing a hand on either side of her on the table. His lips hovered over her skin, wandering down her cheek, down her neck, and along her collarbone.

  Morgan shuddered. The anticipation was too much. She wanted him, she wanted flesh on flesh.

  “Does this ever stop?” she breathed.

  Kenji’s teeth clamped down on her skin and she groaned. “I’m not sure. All I know is that I don’t want it to.”

  “I feel the same.”

  She used her heels to push his pants down around his hips, freeing his erection. That hadn’t taken long, she thought. But, Kenji smiled and pushed her back.

  “Here?”

  Her core flooded with heat and moisture. “Here.”

  He smiled, pleased with his mate, and reached for her pants once more.

  ***

  Kenji leaned back in one of the conference room chairs, naked save for the woman on his lap. He held Morgan tight, like she might fall off at any moment or get up and run from the room. She promised him she was here to stay, but a part of him still waited for the worst.

  “Did you know,” Kenji began, tracing lazy circles on her bare thigh, “that each time we make love, our souls mingle. Not only does it sound incredibly romantic, it leaves you with some dragon gifts.”

  Morgan sat up and looked down at him with her brows in a flat line. “Does that mean I’m going to start coughing up fire?”

  He laughed. “No. That would be weird. What I’m saying is that your aging will slow down so your human life matches that of a dragon’s. Other mates claim to have seen more effects than just that. I can’t tell you what you’ll experience.”

  Morgan paused, her expression softening as she thought. He wanted to touch her cheek, feel the smooth surface of it. His heart warmed to know she was his. Morgan stayed for him.

  It seemed the universe did not hate him after all.

  “What is your surprise, anyway?”

  “Oh!” She leapt out of his arms and he found himself bereft. He reached for her to pull her back, but she was fast.

  It seemed she was already starting to inherit some dragon gifts as she dodged his grasping fingers with ease. She yanked on her clothes for the second time that day and winked at him before darting toward the door.

  “I have someone I need to talk to.”

  “You aren’t leaving, are you?” Kenji called after her.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be on the premises the whole time.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The wall had crashed with a cheering uproar. Humans stood on one side and dragons on the other, both working to dismantle what GOE had created. Walls weren’t meant to separate souls and, through everything, it seemed nearly all of Nebraska agreed. Towns and cities from all around convened to tear the wall apart.

 
It might have been in part due to Anya’s social media event she’d set up after Morgan approached her in the Embassy. It’d pulled in people from Lincoln to Sedona. Morgan had never seen anything like it in her life, the solidarity on either side of a wall that had been metaphorical until recently.

  But, even as the wall came down, she wondered what else her life had in store. There was no fighting it, no denying it. Kenji was her mate and she had to admit, she kind of loved him. Sure, it was the seeds of love, a potential that could grow over time, but the bond was there and Morgan would not turn away from it anymore. Morgan wanted to continue reaching for her future, for the dream she’d always wanted. Even if the people of Elshaw looked at the dragons a bit differently after GOE’s meltdown, she still wasn’t welcome in her old studio.

  “You don’t understand,” she’d told Kenji. “The clay has to be fired at insanely high temperatures. Kilns are more expensive than I can handle right now and I don’t want you to spend that kind of money on me. Not when we’ve just started dating, really.”

  His face had sunk. It was the dating term that hit him. Kenji was one hundred percent in their relationship and Morgan was treating it like any other relationship. She wouldn’t blindly rush in. She wanted to get to know him inside and out before taking the last step.

  “I don’t think you understand,” Kenji replied. Morgan opened her mouth to argue, but he held up a finger and gently set it on her lips, carefully avoiding her bite. “There are at least two fire dragons on the Territory. I’m sure they’d work in a barter system for you.”

  “Dragon fire?” Morgan’s world had been shaken. There was an entirely new way to fire clay open to her. She could imagine the label and how it would help her words fly off the shelves. Morgan suddenly wanted to run into the studio and start work on a new series of clay pieces, their bellies carved with images of the dragons she’d seen on the territory. Her eyes lit up with glee and Kenji pulled her into a kiss. “Do you think it would work?”

  He shrugged. “I’m sure we’d have to build the right circumstances; perhaps get a kind of drum you can put the clay pieces in for Noelle or Liana to fire. I’d ask Liana first. Noelle can be touchy.”

  Morgan laughed. There were new doors open before her, things she never could have done before and connections she’d never once thought she’d have.

  “Thank you for being my mate,” Morgan whispered. She hugged him tight and he wrapped his heavy arms around her like a weighted blanket.

  Morgan could only hope she would never end up like her father. She never wanted to be stricken with grief the way he’d been. She never wanted to lose her dragon man. Nothing in this world would take him from her.

  Her fingers tightened into his flesh, but a voice sought them out and Kenji’s head snapped up. His brows furrowed in confusion and he looked to find the source of the sound. Morgan felt her heart hammer, but she couldn’t understand why. There was a kind of omen happening, a feeling that hit her and refused to leave. Slowly, reluctantly, her fingers slipped away from Kenji.

  He stood and turned toward the approaching voice. It was Morty, the dragon who’d caused chaos in downtown Elshaw. Morgan found herself studying his face and noticed the shadows were considerably lighter, despite what had happened so recently. The man fought to catch his breath before speaking, holding a finger in the air to ask for pause.

  “What’s going on?” Kenji’s voice was urgent. His eyes looked past them, as if he already knew what was happening. He was alert, his spine perfectly straight.

  Morgan could feel a distance growing between them and it hurt. There was a physical ache in her chest at the thought. She didn’t know what was happening.

  “Winnifred is doing it. She’s leaving the Territory.”

  Kenji cast a glance back at his mate before darting forward. He was fast, too fast for Morgan to keep up. She was forced to watch him get further and further away from her. She wanted to cry out, to call back to him, but the words were stuck. Her chest tightened and she feared she wouldn’t be able to breathe. All This time she’d been pushing Kenji away, and suddenly, he was running away from her.

  Literally.

  She told herself she was being unreasonable. The fears eating away at her were completely unfounded. There was no reason for her to even be thinking such things. He hadn’t said anything about leaving. If anything, they’d been inseparable for days.

  Morgan found her mate standing before an older woman, a female dragon Morgan didn’t recognize. The way he stared the woman down, Morgan assumed this was the Winnifred Morty had been talking about. Behind the woman stood a number of frail and tired looking dragons. Morgan felt stones in her stomach, suspense and tension tight.

  “You didn’t tell me you were leaving,” Kenji said, his voice flat.

  Winnifred’s lips tightened into a flat line. Her eyes flicked toward Morgan, accusingly. Morgan found herself rising in defiance. Who was this woman to look at her this way?

  “I assumed you were otherwise preoccupied.”

  Kenji’s eyes left Winnifred’s. He scanned the group standing behind her and his face softened. Winnifred spared no time in stepping between Kenji and his line of sight once more. She implanted herself there with a stern look on her face.

  “I do not think you’re fit to guard this family, anymore.” Winnifred pointedly looked at Morgan again.

  Kenji’s jaw dropped. “Are you insinuating that I cannot do my job if I have a mate?”

  Winnifred drew in a slow breath and rose to her full height, which included sticking her nose in the air. “You have a human mate, Kenji. She’s weak and easily killed. This will forever be a distraction. Not only will you put her first when protecting the family, you will spend more time thinking of your fragile love.”

  Kenji had considered leaving with her? Morgan felt her heart begin to burn. This woman thought too much of herself. Her own body was lithe and her muscles shrunken beneath her wrinkle lined skin. Did she think she could protect this group alone?

  Kenji would leave with this woman and Morgan would find herself alone. She knew he would do anything to keep the dragons behind her safe; her lover was a gentle soul that only wanted the best for those around him. She remembered the way he’d comforted Morty after his break down.

  Morgan only wished there was room for her in his life. She was a liability. Kenji saw it, he knew it and that meant leaving her behind. She felt her knees begin to shake. How long had he known he would be leaving with this woman? Why hadn’t he told her?

  “I think you vastly underestimate the humans in this world,” Kenji said with a forced laugh. He, too, was considering Winnifred’s words. His eyes flicked back to Morgan every now and then. Nothing bad had happened to her since they’d met, despite the extreme circumstances they found themselves in over and over, but she could tell the thought was there. The what if was there, in his mind.

  Morgan realized something. It made her burn with anger. Winnifred was a conniving woman and her words were easily eating away at Kenji’s resolve. Morgan found herself striding forward.

  The connection of skin on skin made an echoing sound. Winnifred’s head snapped sideways. Morgan’s hand burned from the impact. Still, she didn’t hold the throbbing hand or cower away from Winnifred’s glare once she recuperated.

  “You are only angry because he won’t be your peon anymore. Kenji found a new life for himself and it doesn’t involve being your servant.” Morgan stood her ground, even as she was surrounded by dragons. “Don’t try to weasel your way into his mind, make him doubt himself. And, certainly do not talk about me like I am a porcelain doll waiting to fall off the shelf. I’ve survived quite a lot in the past few days.”

  Winnifred’s lip curled away from her teeth, but a warmth appeared at Morgan’s back. Kenji’s hands settled on her shoulders and she leaned into him. Her head twisted so she could look up at him.

  “If you want to leave, to be with the dragons leaving the Territory, I’ll understand. Just know,
it’s your choice.”

  He sucked in a breath, his chest rising into her back. She smiled and leaned into him. She would be there for him, would stand beside him to help him find his own dream.

  It never occurred to her that he might not know who he was or what he wanted. Morgan’s world had been clear, a path she loved always before her. It’d gotten a bit winding recently, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

  What did Kenji want from his life? She glanced at the dragons behind Winnifred and thought, maybe, he just wanted to keep his family safe. There was an urge to follow Winnifred if only to keep the dragons leaving the Territory safe in this uncertain world. They were his family, not by blood, but by choice.

  “I’m sorry Winnifred, but I told Liana I would head her new task force and I cannot back out of that deal. What I’m doing here will show the world we mean good. It also means I’m here to protect every dragon.”

  The group standing behind Winnifred shared glances. Morgan felt her heart rise. It was Morty who stepped up.

  “You told us he would be coming with us,” Morty accused Winnifred. “You promised us we would have safety.”

  Winnifred’s eyes widened. She spun around to face the small family of dragons she’d assembled from the scraps of discontent. It seemed they were still rather discontent. She held up her hands, trying to wrangle the falling apart family as bodies started to shift in different directions.

  “Do you think this mass of bodies is safe?” Winnifred growled at the dispersing crowd. “Don’t you realize all this place has become is a mass target? Every dragon body in the whole country in one place makes it easier for the Guardians to pick us off one by one.”

  Kenji sighed. “You’re running scared. I understand the feeling. You think that if you keep moving, if you never look back at what you lost you’ll never let it hurt you. That isn’t quite how things work. Sorry to be the one to tell you this.”

  Morgan squeezed Kenji’s hands where they’d moved to wrap around her. He held her like she might disappear. Most of the time she’d known him, Morgan had been set to run away from him and the dragons. She couldn’t blame him if he still thought she’d disappear.