For the Love of Her Dragon

by Julia Mills

  Royce showed up at Devon’s with the full intention of feeling him out for information about Kyra. He knew his friend had taken his request to watch over his mate very seriously and that they had formed a quick friendship that Royce envied more than he was willing to admit.

  Devon answered the door with a smile and a knowing look that had Royce laughing out loud. He realized it had been a while since he had truly laughed without the aid of alcohol and felt like a tiny piece of the boulder he was carrying on his shoulders had been lifted. “I guess you know why I’m here?” Was all he had to say before Devon clapped him on the shoulder and invited him in.

  “Yeah. Honestly, I’m surprised it took you this long.” Devon chuckled. “You want some coffee?”

  “Yeah, thanks.” Standing in Devon’s kitchen, he was suddenly struck with an incredible sense of unease, and realized for the first time in a really long time that he was nervous.

  His incredibly perceptive friend noticed, too. Handing him his coffee, Devon got right to it, “So what are you gonna do, Bro?”

  “Well,” Royce chuckled. “I have no idea.” Unable to stand still, he began to pace the length of the long galley kitchen, his long legs eating up the distance in only five steps before he had to turn and retrace his steps. “I fucked up, Dev. I mean fucked up on a royal level, and I have no clue what to do to make her see that I’m sorry and that I’ve changed. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m still a work in progress, but I now know that she has an iron will and the inner strength of a Titan. Hell, she makes me look like a lightweight and we all know I have some seriously strong convictions. But her determination to do what is right and keep her magic as white as possible is a living force within her.”

  Devon nodded his head while Royce continued to pace and ramble, everything he had been thinking for the last week and a half pouring from him. “Our bond is growing. I know I kick started it on the ridge that morning, but I’m shocked at how strong it’s getting in such a short amount of time. I thought with the lack of contact it would fade, but it’s the opposite. There are times I can feel her thinking about me and damn man, it makes my freaking day, and then I remember that she hates the very air I breathe and well…you know…”

  He felt like he was a young man again, trying to ask a girl out for the first time, only this time it wasn’t a trip to a barn raising…it was for all eternity. Devon stood looking thoughtful as Royce continued on, “I know I have to talk to her, but how? She avoids me like the plague and looks at me like I’m wanted for mass murder.”

  Devon barked a laugh, which surprisingly made Royce feel better. He stopped pacing and stood across from his longtime friend. “Dude, she does not think you have the plague and as for how she looks at you…well, I think you might be projecting your fears about her anger just a bit.” He held up his hand indicating with his thumb and forefinger just a little bit, and then threw his arms wide open. Both men laughed long and hard, a much needed respite from the worry Royce had been spreading while he spoke.

  As their levity wound down, Royce grabbed the mug of coffee Devon had poured and headed out the back door to the patio. He sat on one of the large wooden chairs he remembered watching Devon construct, sand, and stain years ago, and thought about all he had experienced and all that was still to come. Deciding to share something he hadn’t told anyone, he sighed, “My mother spoke to me the other day.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Devon answered, only confirming what Royce had always known, his friend was the most accepting and spiritual of all his brethren.

  “Yeah, she told me to get my ass in gear and do whatever it took to win Kyra back.” He looked out over Devon’s well-manicured lawn, not really seeing anything, but looking for answers in the landscape.

  “She’s right ya’ know? Kyra has already started falling in love with you. I can see it as plain as day. Don’t get me wrong, she’s fighting it. She’s still hurt and really not sure she can ever trust you, but she can’t help what she feels. Kyra is magical, Bro, seriously magical, and Earth witches have their crap to deal with regarding mates and forever and everything. Did you know that she has a tattoo on her right hip that is a damn near exact match for yours?”

  Before the last word was all the way out of Devon’s mouth, Royce was standing toe-to-toe with his friend, barely containing his rage and snarling, “How the fuck do you know she has a tattoo anywhere on her body?”

  Devon grinned and that only caused Royce to push his chest against his brethren’s, an act of aggression among dragons. “Touch a nerve there, old man?”

  His friend took a step back and it was all Royce could do not to step right back up to him. Grinning, Devon said, “She told me about it. Explained how she’s known since her fiftieth birthday that she was to be mated to a dragon shifter. That the mark appears like once every thousand years or so to a white witch the Goddess deems worthy of the honor, and that her mom, the leader of their coven, went ape shit when she showed her and tried to run her life, hence the reason she’s on her own.

  “She also said that a couple days after the mark appeared she had a crazy dream, and when she woke up she thought she was losing her mind, because she knew all these new words she’d never heard before. It wasn’t until Lance said one of them to Sam that she realized, she knew what it was. She understands the language of our ancestors.”

  If possible, Royce felt even worse. Kyra had been deemed worthy by the Goddess herself and fashioned by the Universe just for him and he had pissed all over it by being a dick. To top it off, he had just acted like a total asshole to one of his best friends…way to go, loser, ran through his head. “Shit, I really am the lowest form of life. I’m sorry, man. What the hell am I gonna do, Dev?”

  “You’re gonna do what men have been doing since the dawn of time…you’re going to grovel, my friend. Beg like your life depends on it because, let’s face it….it does.”

  Royce knew Devon was right but he had no clue how to go about it. He was the one that had been doling out advice for most of his life. He’d never had to think about what he would do if the shoe was on the other foot, and now faced with a mess bigger than anything he had ever counseled anyone on, he was lost. His next thought spurred him to action, but I’ll be damned if I give up.

  “Thank you, Dev. I’m going over there right now. I’ll camp out on her front porch if I have to.”

  He headed out the door and Devon’s parting words of advice made him smile, “Take flowers, women love flowers.”

  He ran into the Town Square, as Rayne’s mate had named the commerce center of their lair, and grabbed the biggest, most beautiful bunch of fresh cut flowers he could find. Wasting no time, he walked as fast as his long legs would carry him. It was time he and Kyra talked, time to resolve their issues and get on with their lives. If she would only listen to him, he knew he could show her that he had changed and that all he wanted was to share his life with her. The slamming of her front door and the look on the woman’s face that exited stopped him dead in his tracks. Maybe now is not the best time, he thought.

  Royce stared at the door that had just been slammed and then looked at the tail lights of the car making its way out of the lair and wondered what the hell had just happened. Unsure what to do, he walked towards the door, hoping a brilliant idea would just come to him. By the time he stepped onto her porch no such idea had occurred, and he had reached the point of no return, so he did the only thing he could do…he knocked. Waiting to the count of twenty and deciding Kyra was not going to answer, he stepped back and looked around her tiny porch. Not wanting to show up at the training pit with a bundle of flowers, he was just about to lay them on the porch swing when the door creaked open and Kyra looked around the corner.

  Her face was flushed with anger and her eyes looked everywhere but at him, but he could still see the fire burning in them. He knew he should have apologized for the intrusion and walked away, but his feet refused to move and his heart was screaming to stay. Not to mention the thousand
pound beast with whom he shared his very soul that was doing everything but blowing smoke to let him know that they needed their mate.

  She spoke, and he let her voice just roll over him, “Did you need something?”

  “I wanted you to have these,” he said and handed her the flowers.

  Kyra hesitated and he was afraid that she would decline his gift but after a few seconds of an inner debate he watched in her eyes, she tentatively reached out and took them from him. “Thank you. They’re beautiful,” she said, still looking at the bouquet.

  As her head tipped forward and she smelled the huge pink blossom at the apex of the arrangement, he wished for the day her lips would be that close to his again. Just the thought brought memories of the brief time he had actually held her in his arms and the many erotic dreams he’d had recently.

  He cleared his throat, “Everything okay?”

  She looked up at him under her lashes, only accentuating how much smaller than him she was and shrugged, “Doesn’t everyone have family drama?”

  “Family?” he asked.

  “Yeah, that was dear old mom,” she answered with so much emotion, he immediately remembered what Devon had told him about their strained relationship.

  At a loss for words, he let his heart speak for him, “I’m sorry you had to deal with that.”

  “Whatever, it’s not like I expected anything different. I’m actually surprised she showed up. I was sure I had been officially written off, or maybe that was just wishful thinking.” His heart clenched at the sight of her sad smile, and all he wanted to do was hold her until her hurt was long forgotten.

  She quickly composed herself. It was like for just a few moments she had forgotten to be upset with him, and he’d had hope, but then a wall had been instantly constructed between them and her eyes became shuttered. Kyra was closing him out and that was something he could not let happen. Throwing caution to the wind, he took a step forward, pleasantly surprised that she didn’t move away. “I wanted to talk to you…please?”

  He watched her struggle with her decision and prayed to every deity he had ever heard of for her to just give him a chance. When she speared him with her violet eyes his heart skipped a beat and he thought he might pass out, but then she slowly nodded and it beat like he had just run a mile. “Come on in. I need to put these babies in some water,” she nodded towards the flowers and reached back to push the door open farther. “Besides, we seem to be drawing a crowd.”

  He followed her gaze and saw that both of his brothers and more than a few of the Guardsmen were nonchalantly trying to hear their conversation. He shook his head and followed Kyra through the door, vowing to kick Devon’s ass for spreading the word of his whereabouts.

  Once inside, all thoughts of anything but his mate fled. Her scent was everywhere, making his dragon roll on his back and damn near purr in ecstasy. He looked around the small cottage he had visited more times than he could remember when Rayne had been building the big house. He had even slept on the very couch that still occupied center stage in the living room, but this visit, everything seemed different, brighter, better, just because of the home’s inhabitant. Little things that screamed her presence were lying here and there, making it feel warm, inviting, and lived-in.

  Kyra headed straight to the kitchen and he heard the water running while she filled a vase for her flowers. He stood in the dining room just taking it all in and picked up a pendant from the table. A large golden stone beautifully bound in copper with a heavy chain attached. The stone seemed to flair to life in his hand. He could feel Kyra’s energy and a distinctly feline energy that he could only assume was Max’s, but then fading into the background was another. It seemed heavier than the others and dark, but also familiar somehow.

  Lost to what he was experiencing, he was surprised when Kyra spoke and he realized she was right beside him, “What do you feel?”

  She stared at the stone in his hand and he knew that’s what she was talking about but wished it was something much more personal that had spurred her inquiry. “I feel your energy and a Big Cat, Max, I’m guessing?” he slyly asked, trying to keep his jealousy from showing through, but promising himself to talk to the King whenever the chance presented itself.

  She nodded and waited for him to continue. “And something in the distance that is dark but familiar.” As soon as he heard the words he had only thought moments ago, his old suspicions tried to rise up, but there was no way he was going to blow the only chance Kyra may ever give him to try to make things right. With renewed focus, he looked at her beautiful face, listened to the sound of her breathing, and watched her pulse flutter just beneath the skin at the base of her neck, a spot he wanted to taste almost as much as he wanted his next breath.

  She spoke and it was barely above a whisper, but filled with excitement, “You can feel him? Really?”

  “Him who?” Royce asked, keeping his jealousy on a tight leash but needing an answer as quickly as possible.

  “Andrew. I spelled that Goldstone to work as kind of a tracking device. A way to give me a look at what was going on around him, maybe even show me where he is, but he is using and surrounded by so much black magic that it only takes a little while before I can’t read it anymore. I even had Max cleanse it for me using his brand of magic, but that lasted less than a day and then nada. But until you said you could feel him, I never thought about the connection of your dragon magic to his.” She was excited. It made his heart beat faster to see her eyes light up and he wanted to shout that he had done that, but it was just a tiny step towards his ultimate goal.

  “Do you mind if we hold on to it together and see what comes to light?” she tentatively asked, and he could only guess that she was scared of his response because of his earlier recrimination of all things magic.

  Wanting to reassure her that he was a changed man and needing to help her, he readily agreed, “Absolutely. What do you need me to do?”

  Kyra looked surprised at his eager acceptance, further confirming that he was on the right path. It may not have been going how he had planned, but he was spending time with his mate and she was no longer looking at him like he kicked her puppy, so he was putting it in the win column.

  “Take a seat,” she pointed to the chair at the head of the table and took a seat next to him. “You’re so damn tall, I’m getting a crick in my neck from looking up at you,” she chuckled and he laughed along, happier than he had been for a long time.

  She lit a candle and set it between them. When she reached for his hand, he braced for the touch he had thought lost to him forever while trying to hide any reaction that would make Kyra turn from him. “Hold the stone in your fist and then wrap your other hand around it,” she instructed.

  He complied, sad when their connection was broken, but almost immediately, she put one hand on top of his and the other underneath. Her hands were so small they barely covered just the back of his, but the warmth he felt from her touch was unlike any other. His body began to react and he thanked the heavens that his shirt tails covered his growing erection. He had no clue how he would explain that and was sure that she wouldn’t find it complimentary.

  “Now, focus on the flame and think of Andrew, not the traitor that you want to catch, but the man he was before all of this happened. That is the part I have no knowledge of, the part I can’t connect with. I have a feeling he has more dragon magic than he realizes, and if we can use that to tap in, then we can get a better sense of what the little shithead is planning.”

  He wanted to laugh at what she had said, but her demeanor told him she was dead serious, so he focused and remembered Andrew as he had been when Royce had trained him. How proud Andrew had been to be accepted in the Guard and the incredible bond he and his brothers shared. The bond between the brothers had been as strong as he shared with his own and he wondered if maybe Aidan or Aaron might be able to connect with Andrew better than he, but he didn’t mention it out of the sheer need to spend time with Kyra. If he couldn
’t help her, he would most definitely suggest it, but that was after he had done everything he could.

  The flame danced and swayed hypnotically as the stone grew warmer in his hands. The longer he watched the more he could make out images in the golden glow, and in the next second, he was able to feel what the traitor was feeling and the bastard was excited. The picture developing in the flame showed a ritual fire surrounded by at least fifty people, some hooded, some wearing amulets that resembled the ones Kyra made, but dirtied by black magic. The group chanted the words Andrew and another man, obviously also in charge, fed them.

  Royce caught glances of the area surrounding the fire that only confirmed what Kyra had said; he was planning a ritual on the mountain beside Black Lake. The picture faded from view and Kyra slumped back in her chair, severing their connection before she spoke, “He must have come in contact with more shit magic,” she huffed, and it was then that he realized how discouraged she was.

  “You should be proud of yourself. That was amazing,” he praised.

  Kyra’s eyes raised, wide and full of skepticism, making Royce chuckle, “No, seriously,” he laid his hand on her knee. “You should be proud. You just confirmed what you thought all along…he is going to perform a ritual at Black Lake on the mountain and we can be there to stop him.”

  He tried to convey the pride and acceptance he felt, and for a moment he thought it might be working, but then Kyra suddenly stood up and walked to the far end of the table. “Thank you for helping me with that, but given your dislike of all things magic, I’m sure that’s not why you’re here.”

  His reprieve was over and she had all her defenses at the ready once again, waiting for him to make a mess of things again, but there was no way he was going to let that happen. He took a deep breath and let his hands fall into his lap, waiting for a just a few seconds and listening to her heartbeat. The rapid beat told him that she was just as nervous as he. Everything in him screamed to do whatever he could to make her feel better. Using the voice he reserved for the mates of his brethren, he began, “I came here to apologize. I know it’ll never be enough, and if given the chance, I’ll spend every day for the rest of my life making it up to you. I am so incredibly sorry for everything that I did to push you away. I’m a complete and total idiot. It’s the only excuse I have and I know it’s like a raindrop hoping to fill the ocean…it will never be enough.” He stopped and watched his mate, looking for any sign that his words were having the desired effect, but he just couldn’t tell.