Restoring The Broken (Rogue Dragons Book 3)

by Emilia Hartley

  Slowly, she lowered herself to a sitting position beside the beast. Both eyes were open now. It glanced at the top of the ravine, to Dillon. The dragon’s lip curled.

  “Don’t be rude,” she said.

  The beast’s green eyes snapped back to her. She waited for her heartrate to spike, for cold fear to slither through her gut. Everything about this situation told her she should be afraid, yet she couldn’t seem to muster any desire for caution. The green-scaled dragon had been hidden from her, but she didn’t think it would hurt her.

  “Are you the reason Erik has been struggling lately?”

  The beast looked away. That was answer enough for her.

  “Why do you hurt him like that? What has he done to deserve punishment?” Talking to a dragon that couldn’t convey its thoughts in any language seemed a little odd, but this was her only chance.

  The beast shuffled toward her without fully lifting itself from the ground. The way it set its head against her thigh and huffed, its whole body going limp, should have told her something. Bree couldn’t decipher the gesture.

  At the top of the ravine, more silhouettes joined Dillon’s. She couldn’t see who they were, but if she sniffed the air, she caught the familiar scents of Isabella and Gavin. Isabella had to be the form leaning into Dillon. Five feet away, the dark shape of Gavin watched her.

  “Give him indigestion if he eats you,” Gavin called out.

  Bree rolled her eyes. She glanced to the green beast.

  “I’m tired,” she said. “Can you give Erik back, so I can take him to bed with me?”

  The green-scaled beast perked up like a dog who’d just heard someone say walk. She laughed while the beast shrunk back into Erik’s lanky human form. A dragon tattoo on his shoulder caught her attention before her gaze slid down his chest to his groin. Her core tightened.

  Erik groaned. The sound brought her attention back to his face. He blinked at the sun and scowled.

  “What the hell happened?” he asked.

  Dillon answered before she could. “You lost control to beast number two. Your girlfriend decided to hang out with you down there. I called Gavin to help make you throw her up in case you ate her.”

  Erik groaned. Bree knew she’d never been in danger of being eaten, but the fact that they’d thought so bothered her. Erik had a lot more to him than he’d let on. She wanted to know more about him. He wouldn’t let her in, though. She could already see him shutting down right in front of her.

  Maybe, once they were alone, she could get him to open up. He didn’t like the green dragon. It seemed that no one in his family did. Or, they didn’t trust the dragon, at least. The dark circles under Dillon’s eyes as they passed him told her that he’d been on the edge of the ravine all night.

  ***

  Erik followed Bree into the house. She led him along by one finger hooked with his. Something was off about her, but he couldn’t quite place it. His thoughts were bombarded by guilt.

  He’d let the monstrous beast out again. Only by sheer luck had it decided to take a nap. It could have hurt Dillon, could have wrecked the cabin, could have done any number of reckless and dangerous things.

  According to Dillon, Bree had jumped into the ravine without so much as a care for her own life. Erik opened his mouth, ready to warn her that she should be more careful, until she tossed a smile back to him.

  He kicked his bedroom door closed behind him. “You’re glowing. I pissed you off last night, but you’re glowing now.”

  She probably took someone home. Her beast had needs. Hell, she has needs. I can’t keep her to myself. She’ll never belong to me.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you had two beasts?” She wasn’t angry. If anything, Bree sounded…awed.

  Erik had never taken any kind of joy in his condition. The monstrous beast lurked in him only to remind him that he would destroy everything he touched. She’d had a life before he came along and forced a dragon upon her. It didn’t matter if he’d meant it or not; there was no changing what’d happened.

  She threw herself down onto his bed. Her legs open and her hair fanned out. The sight of her made his blood sink to his groin. He took a step forward but stopped himself before he could press between her legs. His beasts both growled unhappily in the back of his mind.

  “What I am…is not good. You could have been hurt, Bree.”

  She pushed herself up, her weight on her elbows, and looked him in the eye.

  “Don’t,” he said. “This isn’t exciting or fun. I’m dangerous. I’m a risk to everyone around me.”

  She raised a brow. Clearly, she didn’t believe him. A groan of frustration tightened his throat. He stepped toward her again. Ready to argue, he was caught off guard when she sat up and grabbed him. Bree yanked him onto the mattress and curled into his chest.

  “Shut up,” she told him. “The green beast likes me. I can tell.”

  He wrapped his arms around her. “That fucker made me bite you in the first place.”

  He waited for her to jerk back and shove him away. The moment never came. Bree only snuggled closer. He thought he heard the soft sound of her snores, but she rolled those stormy sea eyes up to him.

  They became distant, like her mind was somewhere else. “Setting the fire scared me. I won’t deny it. It made me think I wouldn’t be able to do anything without destroying the world around me. So, I guess I kind of understand where you’re coming from.”

  A heartbeat passed.

  “I won’t say this is easy, but I’m not mad. I’m glowing because I spent every hour after my shift trying to figure out how to fly. While I still can’t do it, it was honestly a lot of fun. I don’t hate what I’ve become.”

  He’d witnessed her breakdown over the grassfire firsthand. That wouldn’t be her last hardship. No matter how she felt right now, things would only get harder. Especially now that they were in the middle of a war. He hadn’t meant to change her, let alone drag her into the mess that Zander had created.

  He wished, frivolously, that Zander would give up on his plans. The thought remained frivolous because Zander’s pride would always outweigh any kind of rational thought. Old dragons ended up like that sometimes.

  Erik wished he could do more for his clan and for Bree, but there was a reason Zander had cast him out. If this new clan were a table, Erik was the uneven leg that made it wobble. He feared the day that he would bring the whole thing crashing down. It should have taken longer, but changing Bree showed him that he couldn’t control himself as well as he would have liked.

  “Don’t mess with my green dragon,” Erik said.

  He waited for a response, but a minute later she snored. She’d fallen asleep in his arms after everything he’d done to her. If only he could have been a better man. Someone like Dillon or Casey would have waited for her. They would have stood on the sidelines and protected her. Erik had made the egregious mistake of thinking he needed a distraction.

  His attention should have been on Bree the whole time. He didn’t deserve her, but now he knew neither beast in him would allow him near any other woman. The thought should have saddened him, after the past weeks, but he wouldn’t miss a damn night he’d ever spent with another woman.

  Chapter Nine

  Though they’d spent several days apart, Bree didn’t expect a midnight booty call. She didn’t think Erik would call her so late to hook-up, but when she answered the phone, his breath was ragged. Without explanation, she knew what was going on.

  “That bastard again?” she asked.

  “Nng,” was the best she got out of him.

  She imagined him in the ravine again, doubled over while he fought back the beast he feared so much.

  “I don’t have a car,” she said with a grimace. “It’s going to be a while before I can get there. Can you call Dillon in the meantime?”

  “He and Isabella…deserve…a night without me bothering…them.” Strain twisted his words and seemed to steal his breath. “Fly to me?”


  She let out a nervous laugh. “I told you, I can’t fly yet.”

  Phone pressed to her ear, she shoved her feet into her boots and ran out the door. The summer night was still warm. The humidity clung to her skin like the memory of a sunny afternoon.

  Erik didn’t respond. She heard a clunk and a distant groan on his end. He must have dropped the phone. She looked up into the sky and a nervous tingle jumped down her spine. She could have called someone else. Surely, she could have found a way to get ahold of one of the other shifters. Maybe even Evangeline or Isabella.

  Instead, Bree marched to the edge of town. By the time she reached a secluded area, her skin had tightened so much that she felt like a balloon about to burst. Urgency hummed under her skin. She had to get to Erik as soon as possible. Though she hadn’t yet mastered flying, she would find a way. Her beast wanted to get to him.

  No, it needed to get to him.

  She shrugged off her jacket and paused when she heard a twig snap. Slowly, she scanned the small field. Though she saw no one, an unfamiliar scent floated on the air. The nervous energy around her spine sharpened almost painfully. She wanted to ask who was there but held her tongue.

  What would Erik’s family say if a hunter caught her shifting and tried to sell photos to someone online? Would they banish her? Punish her physically? She realized she knew little about them or their ways. Though she felt a tie to Erik that she couldn’t ignore, the others were little more than acquaintances to her. She still stood on the sidelines of this world she’d been dragged into.

  Another soft crack reached her ears. Either it was a bad hunter or a careless shifter. She sniffed the air and searched for the hint of smoke that gave away a dragon shifter. Whoever it was, they were still too far away.

  Bree didn’t have the time to figure out how to fly. Not when someone was possibly watching her. She hated the way the back of her neck tingled. There had been that shifter she’d run into around town. She couldn’t recall his scent while her mind churned. Perhaps he wanted something from her.

  She wasn’t too keen to stick around and find out. Instead of shifting, Bree hugged her jacket to her chest and made her way back to the road. She picked up pace, walking along the shoulder until the scent vanished from the air. Once she was sure she’d left the stalker behind, she asked her beast for a bit of energy.

  The beast poured it into her. Exhilaration made her heart pump as she ran all the way to the cabin on the mountainside. She should have been winded by the time she reached the ravine, but her beast kept her body calm and stable. She didn’t have time to marvel at her body’s new capabilities.

  Erik’s groan split the air like a saw-toothed knife. She cringed and jumped into the ditch with him. He glanced up when she reached him. Immediately, he opened his arms. She didn’t think twice about stepping into them and letting him lay his head against her chest. He released a breath, soft and untroubled.

  Bree had a handful of questions burning inside her, from how often Erik had to fight the green dragon to who might have been watching her in the field. She didn’t bring any up. Not yet. She sank to the ground with Erik and held him while the tension in his body slowly drained away.

  They should have discussed his green dragon and how it probably needed to be let out more, but her thoughts kept turning toward the feeling of being watched. She didn’t feel it here, at the cabin. The stalker likely hadn’t followed her. That didn’t offer as much comfort as it should have.

  Her optimism about becoming a dragon shifter didn’t wane, but she could feel it being overshadowed by worry. She clung tighter to Erik, confident that he would protect her no matter what situation he was in. How she knew this, she couldn’t tell. It was an instinct deep in her core, perhaps from the new voice that occupied a corner of her mind.

  Was it love? Was it a kind of attachment from being changed by him? Or was this the longing she’d felt before the change? She couldn’t sort out her feelings. Not when danger potentially loomed on the horizon.

  “I don’t deserve you,” Erik said, disrupting her thoughts.

  She peered down at the man she held tight.

  “I betrayed you, and you still came to help me.”

  “Sorry I was late,” she said softly. “I couldn’t figure out how to fly.”

  Why she lied, she didn’t know. It didn’t seem like the right time to mention the stalker. With the dragon Erik feared trying to break free of him, she reasoned that the news might prompt the beast to make another attempt to escape.

  “Tell me about your second beast,” she said. “Why do you favor the light blue dragon instead?”

  He groaned. It wasn’t pained, but annoyed. “The green dragon is a monster.”

  “That’s a bit extreme. Don’t you think? You aren’t a monster, so why would you think one of your dragons is one?” She ran a hand through his hair as she spoke.

  “I can’t control it, Bree. I can only hold it back from what it wants. The green dragon has tried to destroy my new home. It hurt you. That should be enough evidence to prove to you that it’s a monster.”

  She shrugged. “What if it’s just angry from being held back all the time? Maybe it’s trying to get back at you for being a controlling asshole.”

  “You wound me,” he said.

  “You did this to yourself. I’m just the messenger.”

  Though Erik had changed her, he also helped her. He showed her how to control her strength, her fire. He showed up on her doorstep with a plethora of food and comforting items. She wanted to help him in return. She told herself that it was only because he had been kind, not because she loved him.

  She couldn’t love him. No, she wouldn’t allow it.

  He’d messed up in that department. She would be his friend and his confidante, but she wouldn’t be his lover.

  “You know…” Her mind wandered and dug up something she’d set aside a while back. “You called Isabella a mate. What does that mean? Is that a dragon way of saying wife?”

  His fingers dug into her lower back. He held her so tight she thought they would meld together. She realized that she wanted it, too. She wanted to become a part of his life. Not just as his friend, but as his lover. Not that Erik would ever give her that.

  Before he changed her, he never noticed her. Now, he made up excuses to keep them apart. He seemed determined to put a barrier between them at all times. Well, almost all times. The barrier didn’t seem like much right now, not with his arms around her and only the night sky as their witness.

  Bree hated how badly she still wanted Erik. She should have protected herself from her own feelings, but she kept leaping over every obstacle he put in her way like this was some sort of marathon. That wasn’t how relationships should work. Right?

  She had so little experience with them. Her heart had never been broken. It’d never even been cherished. Sure, she’d had a few lovers here and there, but they grew tired of her before long. Either they wanted her to have more of a dream for herself or they wanted to uproot her from the simple life she’d made for herself.

  If she managed to start something with Erik, would he tire of her as quickly? Would he ask her to follow him to some big city so she could watch him follow his dreams?

  “Every dragon shifter has a fated mate. Even shifters who’ve been changed have mates waiting for them. We have to live with a bunch of rules, but at least we have one good thing to look forward to.” Erik breathed in like he was trying to drown in her scent.

  She snorted, giving into a playful urge. “Does that mean you get two mates? Or do your beasts cancel each other out so you end up with no one?”

  “I can’t believe you would kick a guy when he’s down.”

  “This isn’t any lower than a normal day for you. Right?” She bit her lower lip and smirked.

  “Listen here,” he said as he pushed himself up.

  But he didn’t go on. He grabbed her wrists and pinned them over her head, making her heart thump and an inferno ignite in her c
ore. Her lip slipped out from between her teeth as she let out a small sound of surprise. It turned into a moan when the inferno spiked and filled her lower region with sensation.

  “Do I get to choose my mate?” she asked. “Or has the universe already decided for me? What if I don’t like the asshole the universe has chosen?”

  “Then your mate will have to work hard to win you over.” He lowered his head to her throat.

  She waited for the kiss that never came. Before his lips could reach her skin, someone shouted from the house. Erik was on his feet before she could recover. He passed a hand down to her and help her up so they could run toward the house together.

  Anger burned beneath her skin. Whoever had screamed had stolen a perfect moment from her. She and Erik could have had something, but it had dissolved into nothing without warning. She couldn’t reach back for it, couldn’t ask Erik for a rain check.

  As the anger simmered down and the heat of desire banked, she could think clearly. She should have warned someone about the stalker earlier. The scream could have been anything. Someone could have tripped and fell. But if the person she’d heard earlier had followed her…then this was all her fault.

  She shouldn’t have been thinking with her libido. Being so close to Erik had muddled her mind and distracted her from what should have been a priority. The moment Erik had his beast under control, she should have said something. He had a family to protect. She might not be a part of that family, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t have thought of the others.

  They burst into the living room and both scanned the dark until a light flicked on. Bree had to blink as her eyes adjusted to the sudden glare. When her vision cleared, Gavin stood in the kitchen.

  “Who screamed?” Erik asked, breathy.

  Isabella lurched into the kitchen. She wore an oversized t-shirt, one that probably belonged to her mate. Dillon wasn’t far behind her, a sight that would have eased Bree’s panic had Isabella not looked so frightened. Alarm had been etched into every inch of her face.