by Zoe Chant
A Bride for the Dragon
Lost Dragons #4
By Zoe Chant
Copyright Zoe Chant 2018
All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Lost Dragons Series
Foreword
Chapter One: Liev
Chapter Two: Darklis
Chapter Three: Liev
Chapter Four: Darklis
Chapter Five: Liev
Chapter Six: Darklis
Chapter Seven: Liev
Chapter Eight: Darklis
Chapter Nine: Liev
Chapter Ten: Darklis
Chapter Eleven: Liev
Chapter Twelve: Darklis and Liev
Chapter Thirteen: Liev
Chapter Fourteen: Darklis
Chapter Fifteen: Liev
Epilogue: Darklis
A note from Zoe Chant
More paranormal romance by Zoe Chant
Zoe Chant writing as Lia Silver
Zoe Chant writing as Lauren Esker
Special sneak preview: A Mate for the Dragon
The Lost Dragons Series
A Mate for the Dragon
Fated for the Dragon
Destined for the Dragon
A Bride for the Dragon
Bound to the Dragon (forthcoming)
Chosen by the Dragon (forthcoming)
All the books in this series are standalone romances. Each focuses on a new couple, with no cliffhangers. They can be read in any order, but characters from previous books reappear in later ones, so reading in order is recommended for maximum enjoyment.
Foreword
This is a standalone romance, and you don’t need to have read the previous book to enjoy it. However, the character of Darklis, along with her brother Stefan and his mate Holly, first appeared in A Mate for the Dragon. Likewise, Magnus first appeared in Fated for the Dragon, while his mate Alanna first appeared in Destined for the Dragon. To avoid some small spoilers about the events of those books, please consider reading them first!
Chapter One
Liev
Bong!
The sound of the gong rang out through the great hall, deep and sonorous.
Standing on a dais at the very front of the hall, Prince Liev Drakos looked out at the sea of faces before him. Despite the huge number of people in attendance, he knew most of them – he could pick out the more familiar faces from the front several rows. All the clan leaders and their children were here, as well as many other dragons from his own clan besides. Huge though it was, the great hall in Drakos Castle was barely large enough to contain them all.
Bong!
The second sounding of the gong. When it got to three, his father, King Aron, would speak the ceremonial words, and then Liev would officially be declared the heir to the Drakos throne.
Officially, Liev reminded himself. Technically, he’d always known he would – eventually – inherit his father’s crown, and everything that came with it.
Including getting married and producing an heir, Liev thought.
The idea should have filled him with pride – pride that he would be carrying on the Drakos name, ensuring that the future of their clan was safe.
But instead, it only made him feel uneasy.
Within him his dragon reared up, smoke curling from its jaws.
It will be our honor and our duty, it said, wings spread wide. Once we have found our mate, we will –
But that’s just the problem, Liev interrupted it. I haven’t found her. And I’m running out of time.
Liev was almost at the age when a dragon would have to find his mate – or live forever without her. It wasn’t possible for him, as the heir to the throne, to remain childless, however. If he didn’t find his mate before his twenty-fifth birthday, a match would be arranged for him with one of the eligible dragon princesses from the neighboring lands.
Despite the fact that protocol demanded he remain looking out at the assembled crowd, Liev couldn’t stop himself from glancing across at the group of women assembled by the edge of the dais – the daughters of the dragon kings and queens who were here to see him be designated heir.
They were all beautiful, there was no doubt about it. Any man probably would have envied him. In a few days’ time, he would almost definitely become officially engaged to one of them.
But none of them are our mate!
His dragon’s sudden howl, accompanied by a furious jet of flames from its jaws, almost made Liev lose his composure.
We have discussed this, he scolded it, trying not to let his sudden loss of equilibrium show in either his face or his bearing. You knew this would happen. We knew it would happen. And now, it is time to do our duty.
Just as he’d always done. As his father’s eldest son and the heir to the Drakos throne, that had always been what he’d done.
Most especially since his younger brother, Magnus, had gone missing.
For years, they’d had no idea whether he’d been alive or dead. Finally, after Liev and his family had almost given up hope, Magnus had returned. After being taken captive by dragon hunters, he’d been stranded in the human world with no memory of his past at all. It had only been after he had met his mate, Alanna, that he had remembered who he was, and found his way back home.
And it was my fault, Liev thought, sudden pain clawing its way through his heart.
Of course, they’d both been young. But that was no excuse. Liev had dared Magnus to go out flying beyond the safety of the mountain range, beyond the borders of the Drakos lands.
That had been how the dragon hunters had captured him. And after they had put a magical collar on him, there had been no way for Liev, his parents or his brothers to find Magnus again.
It had only been a moment of irresponsibility. But it had almost cost Liev his brother.
And I will never, ever repeat that mistake, Liev told himself, staring resolutely forward again. I will do my duty, no matter what.
Even if it meant having to drag his dragon, kicking and screaming, to the altar, he would do it.
It was his duty.
And anyway, if I don’t find my mate in the next few days, it won’t matter, Liev thought, trying to ignore the stab of pain he felt in his heart.
Every dragon always dreamed of finding their mate – but actually finding them was reserved for a very lucky few. Liev knew that dragons could go on to be perfectly happy without their mates: his own parents, despite having had an arranged marriage, had been very happy together.
But to find that someone who is made especially for you...
Liev couldn’t stop the twist of longing in his chest. He had seen the way that Magnus and his mate Alanna had looked at each other; how they always knew what the other was thinking and feeling, even without saying a word. Their connection was almost palpable, singing in the air between them.
Liev had dreamed of experiencing such a connection for himself, of feeling that spark of electricity when his eyes met his mate’s across a crowded room...
He had to stop himself from shaking his head to clear his thoughts.
Stop it. It’s pointless.
It would be better to reconcile himself to the idea that he was getting engaged to a princess he barely knew. There was nothing he could do to change that. His duty was clear.
The third ringing of the gong finally sounded.
I will do my duty, Liev thought again, as all the dragons in the hall, dressed in their ceremonial robes, rose to their feet.
The ceremonial robes of the Drakos Clan were black and gold – black for the color of their dragon forms’ scales, and gold for the enormous mass of hoard they had accumulated over
the course of fifteen centuries. Their clan was ancient and their hoard massive, even by dragon standards. The material shimmered as his family stood, in all their finery. His father’s crown was encrusted in rubies and diamonds, while his mother’s, while slightly smaller, was no less richly decorated with emeralds and sapphires. Behind them stood his three brothers, Magnus, Cezar and Andrei, each wearing their own princely crowns.
He hadn’t spoken to any of them about his misgivings. It was his burden to deal with. He couldn’t put it onto any of them.
Still, he wondered if Magnus – standing with his own mate, Alanna, by his side – might have been able to detect some of what he was feeling.
He has his mate, Liev thought. He knows what it feels like to find the one who’s just for you...
And it was true. Magnus and Alanna had found each other and overcome all the odds to be with together. It was not exactly a match most dragons would have picked. Alanna, after all, was the daughter of the Lord High Dragon Hunter, and had been a dragon hunter herself when she and Magnus had met.
And yet, Liev thought. And yet –
“Dragon clans!” His father’s voice rang out through the hall. “I give you my son, and now my heir – Liev Drakos, the next leader of the Drakos Clan.”
Liev swallowed as applause rang out. He had been raised for this – trained in everything he’d need to be a true dragon prince. Etiquette, dancing, fencing, fighting, leadership skills: all were necessary, even though some things – such as swordplay – were not especially practical in this day and age. But traditional skills were still highly valued, and Liev was proud of the proficiency he had achieved in each. They had taken years of practice and training.
But still, even after all his years of being brought up as the heir to the throne, it was a daunting sight to look out over the packed hall.
And he knew he had big shoes to fill.
Wedding shoes, his dragon unhelpfully reminded him. Unless, of course, we find our mate.
Chapter Two
Darklis
This is a really, really bad idea.
Darklis’s inner voice – the voice of reason – was loud in her head as she sneaked down one of the massive stone corridors of Drakos Castle.
It’ll be fine, she tried to soothe herself, doing her best to ignore the nervous flutter of her heart.
Stefan would go absolutely ballistic if he knew what she was doing right now – but then, she thought with a smile, what Stefan didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. And there was definitely absolutely no way he would ever find out she’d shirked her official ceremonial duties as representative of the Novak Clan to go poke around in the Drakos Castle library.
How would he? I bet no one even knows I’m gone.
It would all be so easy. She’d slip back into the hall before the end of the ceremony and take her place as if she’d never been gone. Not that she’d even gone to the hall this morning to begin with, since leaving halfway through the ceremony would have drawn a lot of undesired attention. It had been simpler just not to go at all.
Maybe I don’t even have to go back before the end, Darklis thought as she finally found the door she was looking for – the one that led to the library, and all the ancient books it contained. Maybe I can just stay in here until the ball this evening...
Somewhere inside herself, Darklis realized she felt bad for betraying her brother’s trust like this. Stefan had sent her here as the Novak Clan’s official representative, since he himself had decided staying at home with his heavily pregnant mate, Holly, took priority over any official duties he might have.
It was Holly and Stefan’s second child, and so far everything had gone absolutely fine – but separating a dragon and his mate when there was even a slight chance she might need him was never going to happen.
And so, here Darklis was.
Not doing what I’m supposed to be doing at all.
Well, to be fair, Darklis didn’t know how Stefan had expected her to resist temptation in the face of what had to be the biggest and most ancient library of dragon history in the entire world.
He knew she was fascinated by all aspects of magic and magical history. She voraciously devoured any and all books about it that she could get her hands on – and without her knowledge, she and her clan most likely wouldn’t have survived some of the challenges they’d faced in the past.
So really, I’m helping the clan, Darklis rationalized. Surely reading these books and learning more about dragons and magic is more useful than sitting in a stuffy ceremony for someone I’ve never even met?
Still, it had been good to see Magnus again – brief as their meeting had been. She had helped him out with a sticky situation with a manticore last year, not to mention broken him free of a dragon hunter’s control collar. Now that he was back with his family – where he belonged – they hardly got to see him anymore. Of course he visited, but Darklis supposed that being a dragon prince could be time-consuming.
Not that it doesn’t also have its advantages, she thought as she pushed open the door, gasping as she saw what was on the other side.
Books.
Shelves upon shelves of books, reaching up high into the massive, vaulted ceiling; books on shelves so enormous and so tall that they could obviously only have been designed for dragons.
Books that held knowledge passed down from generations past; books that contained secrets that had long since been forgotten.
Darklis felt a giddy excitement rising up within her. The Drakos family could be very possessive with its... well, possessions. She wasn’t sure that if she asked for permission to be here, she’d actually get it. Sneaking in was so much simpler.
And if no one ever found out... well, where was the harm?
It wasn’t like she was going to find out dragon secrets in order to sell them to their enemies, like manticores or dragon hunters.
She only wanted to know.
As she wandered between shelves wondering where to even start, Darklis wondered if her love of reading was all because of how she’d grown up. She hadn’t had a happy childhood, to say the least.
She had grown up thinking her entire family had been murdered by the Lukich Clan of dragons – and they almost had been. Her father, mother, all her uncles and aunts... gone. She had been too young to remember any of them. The only reason she had been allowed to live was because Erik Lukich, the leader of his clan, had thought she could be used as bait to lure out her brother, Stefan.
His plot hadn’t worked, but Stefan had still been forced to fight him anyway, after Erik had kidnapped Stefan’s mate, Holly.
That had been the first time Darklis had seen her brother since she was very young. She had known it was him, all the same – even though she had always been told her family was dead. The Lukich Clan had kept her locked up for thirteen years – and the only thing she had been able to do to keep herself sane was read.
Darklis had read anything and everything – books when she could get them, not that she was allowed to have them very often. But then scraps of paper, receipts, notes, old newspapers... anything to remind herself that there was a world outside of the Lukich manor where she had been imprisoned.
Sometimes the Lukich dragons who had guarded her had taken pity on her and given her a few old books to read. After all, Erik Lukich had told them he was sparing her out of mercy, since she’d barely been more than a toddler when the blood feud between their clans had broken out – and, she supposed she had to admit, not all of the Lukich Clan were bloodthirsty monsters like Erik.
Shaking her head, Darklis tried to put the gloomy, terrifying memories of her past out of her head. She was here in the largest, oldest library known to dragonkind. And she intended to make the most of it.
Sighing in exasperation, she tugged at the hem of her long ceremonial robes, red and green for the Novak colors. She wasn’t used to wearing them, and they kept catching at her feet.
Losing her patience as once again the long robe snagged on the
rich carpet of the library, Darklis simply hiked the robe up, tucking it into her undergarments. This brought the hem up well above her knees, but so what? There was no one else here to see.
Finally feeling a bit more free in her movements, Darklis scooted up the long aisle between the shelves. Dragon organization techniques tended not to make sense to anyone who wasn’t intimately familiar with them, but Darklis knew what she was looking for. There was one book in particular she had always dreamed of seeing – and the only known copy was here, in the Drakos Castle library.
Biting her lip, Darklis felt her heart flutter in anticipation as she reached the shelf she’d been looking for. The gaps between the shelves were vast, so she didn’t have to worry about knocking against anything as she made her way between them, her eyes scanning over the titles of the books as she passed.
The Compleat History of Drakos Dragons and their Vassals, no... The Dangers of Manticores, Past and Present, no... Encyclopaedia of Dragon Clans and the History of their Lands, YES!
Darklis could barely contain her excitement as she finally found what she was looking for. The Encyclopaedia of Dragon Clans and the History of their Lands was an ancient book – and it recorded the origins of all the dragon clans since the beginning of history.
Including her own, the Novak.
So much of their rich history had been lost when her parents and the other older dragons in the clan had been killed. The Novaks had gotten some of their treasure back, but most of their history had been handed down orally, passed from dragon to dragon by spoken words. The things that had been written down had only been half of what the Novak Clan needed to know about itself – the things that the next generation of Novak dragons would need to know to keep them strong.
And now, at last, she finally had her hands on a book that would tell her everything she wanted to know. How the Novak Clan had come into existence, their history, their struggles... basically everything about the early history of her ancestors.