by Leela Ash
Destined for the Dragon
Banished Dragons
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.
Sign up for my BEASTLY SHIFTER GOODNESS mailing list here and receive This short story, The Alpha Shifter’s Mail Order Bride! Then I will only email you when I have a new release or news, or the OCCASIONAL recommendation ; )
… also check out these stories of mine!
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
DRAGONS OF KALDERNON
THE DRAGONS OF KALDERNON COMPLETE SERIES
And we would also love it if you would
LIKE ME, Leela Ash, on Facebook!
and
…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
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
Epilogue
Bonus Content
Nanny to the Shifter
ARLO
A Dragon to Watch over Me
Love and Survival in the Time After
Dragon Protector Preview
Her Secret Protector Bear Preview
1.
“You’re calling out again, Amy?”
Amy cringed at the sound of Eric’s voice and nervously tucked a piece of her sandy brown hair behind her ear. Her co-workers were always surprised when she called off work and was eventually welcomed back with no repercussions. They didn’t realize that Richard had known her father and understood her health problems. It was a lucky break after several years of a tumultuous attempt at keeping a job. Nobody had ever been as understanding as Rich, even if he was a little bit eccentric.
“Yeah. I’m feeling really ill today,” she said, trying to keep her temper out of her voice. She was getting sick of having her sincerity called into question. She wasn’t just playing hooky. She would have done anything in her power to be able to work the same way other people did. It was unbelievably inconvenient to be unable to hold a job or maintain a predictable routine. And it had been like this since she’d hit puberty. Everything had begun to change at that point.
“Well, I hope you feel better soon,” Eric said. “When do you think you will be feeling better?”
He could scarcely hold back his sigh of irritation, and a spike of agitation nearly surfaced in Amy’s voice. But she couldn’t blame him. He was probably sick of having to work overtime. But Rich hadn’t hired anybody after Rachel had quit and now they were short-staffed. It wasn’t Eric’s fault he was cranky about it.
“I don’t know. Hopefully, soon,” Amy said.
“Yeah,” Eric said pointedly. “See you.”
He hung up before Amy could reply and she stared at her phone, ready to throw it against the wall. Her illness always made her short-tempered.
“Bye,” she muttered sarcastically.
She hung up and sank onto the couch with a heavy sigh. Everything in her body hurt. The doctors had no idea what was wrong with her. All of them agreed that they had never seen anything like it before. At one point, a test had found an abnormality in her blood, but they had admitted that the lab could have contaminated the sample. Its discovery hadn’t led to any sort of resolution. Only more unanswered questions. And she was getting tired of it. She was tired of being so damn tired.
The mysterious disease had run in her family. Her mother had been lucky and only had episodes rarely, maybe once every seven years or so. They were short-lived. But her grandmother had been just like Amy. Debilitated by the disease at times and nearly unable to make ends meet because of it. It was the single most obnoxious thing Amy had ever experienced, and her grandmother had disappeared before she was born and had someone who related to talk to about it. She was very much alone. Nobody else understood. Especially not her co-workers.
Amy sighed and turned the tv on irritably, trying to push thoughts away. She had been in college studying to be a doctor. It had always been her dream to be able to aid others in being healthy and strong and defeating their physical weaknesses. It would have made her unbelievably happy to be able to follow her passion and do what she truly felt called to do with her life. She was ridiculously intelligent. She had always been able to learn the terms and understand the way things worked. But she had been forced to drop out of college because of her illness. It had gotten worse the older she got, just as her grandmother’s had become progressively more malicious.
Now, all she could manage to do to support herself was to be a clerk at Rich’s grocery store. It was humiliating in a way, although the job was amazing, and she had an incredible boss who understood exactly what she was going through. He had known her since she was a child, and it was a huge stroke of luck that she had moved back to her home town and was offered the position. She hadn’t even applied. He simply went to visit her and, probably after hearing gossip about town about Amy having to drop out of college, offered her the job.
It was the most generous thing anyone had done for her, and she was lucky to be where she was, even if her co-workers were resentful every once in a while. She was safe and comfortable there. She had a stable income. When she was sick for weeks on end, she was paid in advance. She had an employee and family discount that stacked and made her groceries close to free. She was okay, even when anywhere else she wouldn’t be okay. Rich was like a father figure to her, especially now that her father was gone. They had been the best of friends, and even Amy’s mother had liked the guy. And she was hard to impress.
Amy sighed, willing her mind to stop turning the thoughts around in circles. She was tired. Very tired. What she needed to do was get some rest and worry about everything else in the morning. With any luck, it would be a short episode. That happened sometimes, and if so, she would be back to work before anyone really missed her. She could only hope.
2.
Carter glanced at his watch, his grey-purple eyes narrowing, and frowned. He hated these s
tupid earth contraptions. They were never right; not really. He could sense the position of the sun in the sky. He was a Sun Dragon for crying out loud. He knew where the sun was, even if this wasn’t his own world. Why did humans have to insist that they knew everything? It was beyond obvious they didn’t. They were clearly doing their best to stay on top of things without filling the gaps in their knowledge. At least not nearly fast enough for his liking.
He sighed, waiting impatiently for 12:00 to roll around. Why did it always take so long to get a hold of human medicine? Why couldn’t he just walk inside and take it? He knew it was there. He could see it right on the shelves. The whole system was incredibly flawed.
The pharmacy was his least favorite place to be, but it was important for them to get the amoxycillin. Gavin’s latest theory was that it could help to waken some of the dormant powers that were lying in wait in some of the instruments that the Elders had sent with them to Earth.
Thoughts of the Elders made Carter’s brow furrow in agitation. Why had they been so unfair? He and the others hadn’t done any wrong. Weren’t there ways to tell for sure whether someone was lying? Wasn’t there some kind of magic that would liberate them from the date of banishment due to false accusations? It didn’t seem fair.
Then again, Carter had always been the type of man who had expected far more from others than they were usually capable of giving. He was a man with high ideals and expectations, and it was part of what made him so powerful. He wouldn’t have been part of the team that had been banished if he accepted mediocre quality work. Carter believed in effort. He had a vision and he liked to stick with it through to completion. When other people didn’t understand that, he took it to mean they were either lazy or stupid, and he didn’t get along well with either group.
Finally, his watch ticked to 12:00 and he burst through the doors and walked impatiently to the counter, slapping down his prescription note and fumbling in his pocket for the wadded-up dollar bills he had stuffed inside them before he had left the house. Gavin had promised it would be enough for the stuff, and Carter had left without questioning it. Gavin was definitely the smartest of all the other dragon shifters that had been banished, and he usually knew exactly what he was talking about. If he didn’t know, he didn’t speak while he tried to figure it out. That was something Carter could really respect.
Now, though, standing in front of the dubious man in the white coat who stared down at the crumpled paper and the wadded-up bills that Carter was thrusting at him, he was beginning to have doubts. Was this really going to be enough? Why was the man staring at him like that?
“You don’t pay until the prescription is filled,” the man said with a low, irritated sigh. He took the paper from the counter and uncrumpled it, holding it up to the light as if he were trying to uncover some great mystery. He raised his brow at Carter before turning away.
“This is going to take about an hour. You can wait over there or come back later.”
He gestured lazily toward a sad little area with two fold up chairs and a cheap table with a magazine and a couple of broken crayons on it. Carter bristled. He had already been waiting long enough for the damn place to open. What kind of pharmacy opened at noon? This place was lucky he couldn’t shapeshift into his dragon form or they would all be sorry.
But he couldn’t bring that to their attention. No. All he could do was nod like a goon and turn his back on the man as if the lowly clerk somehow had more power than Carter did. It pissed him off.
Then again, he had always been a little bit hotheaded. It tended to happen when his authority wasn’t respected. But here at the pharmacy he had no authority. The other man was in control of this exchange. He couldn’t just grip him by the throat and demand he get his way. That wasn’t the way things worked. And really, it was a bit ridiculous, anyway. He would never have gotten away with that type of behavior on Fiora. He couldn’t even figure out why he was tempted to try on Earth.
He knew it was stupid and primitive. But ever since being banished, he’d had a bad attitude about everything. Nothing made sense about Earth’s customs. Nothing made sense in general. How could his own kind have stabbed him in the back like this and banished him to a world where nothing was even remotely the same as it was on his own planet? How could things have turned out so cruelly?
But he had no choice but to accept it. Carter frowned. That didn’t mean he had to be happy about it. And he wasn’t going to pretend to be. Pretending was bogus. Unless he had absolutely no choice, like when he had to pretend that he was somehow okay with it when self-entitled clerks liked to think they could look down on their customers instead of just going to the damn shelf and putting the little pills in the bottle.
Carter hated the pharmacy.
Next time, he was going to have Gavin come and run this petty errand by himself. But that wouldn’t be easy. Gavin was the sole driver of the moving van. Carter had his license, but he didn’t like traveling on the roads with humans. They were terrible at navigation and the others had begun to see just how short-tempered he had become since they had arrived on Earth. They knew driving was triggering for him and were kind enough to allow him to only drive when he had no other choice or when it was his own idea. Otherwise, he was left alone to do what he did best; using his brute strength to help them move heavy shit.
Wyvern Movers wouldn’t be anything without Carter, that much was certain. It was one thing he could take pride in. If he wasn’t going to feel at home on this planet, at the very least he could throw himself into his work and become one of the most useful members of the team in that regard. At least it was something he could do to keep his mind off missing home.
A surge of hot anger coursed through Carter at the thought of home. He hated being vulnerable to his emotions like this. At home, it wasn’t an issue, but here on Earth, it really was. Because nobody understood. Sometimes, not even the other dragon shifters understood. They were all in the same boat, more or less, yes. But Carter had been near nobility. He had been climbing the ranks slowly and surely, only years away from promotion at that point. He had wanted to be a council member. He had wanted to join the wise ones in Val Parish; the palace of the Elders.
Instead, everything he had been working for throughout his life had been taken away from him. And through no fault of his own. It was maddening.
Carter clenched his fists as he barged out of the pharmacy. It wouldn’t do anybody any good for him to lose his temper now. He would just have to come back in an hour. Maybe he could spend some time at the waterfront. That would give him a chance to clear his head and treat the smug man in the white coat with some decent human courtesy. He really wasn’t in the mood right now, and it would be detrimental to draw added attention to himself. It had been hard enough to navigate the near media uproar that had followed them when they had appeared suddenly in the town. Luckily, Gavin had managed to get them out of any trouble and had come up with a quick cover story. They were there to start a business. They hadn’t actually materialized out of thin air only to cause trouble. Business was something that could be understood everywhere in the universe. Humans understood it as well.
It was lucky they had been given devices that helped them to translate all human dialects. The Elders were very good at bringing vibrations and intentions into forms that could be understood by all. It was useful. It had perhaps been one of the things Carter had loved most about his kind…
No. He couldn’t think about that anymore. There was no beauty left in his thoughts of home. Only pain.
Carter flared his nostrils. And now he was stuck going on a blind date with a woman who could turn out to be a descendant, but probably wasn’t. So few of them were. He didn’t know how Max had gotten so lucky right off the bat. That luck hadn’t seemed to last for any of the rest of them. Lucky bastard.
Carter glanced around himself. He had made it to the waterfront. At least something on this planet was beautiful. He would just have to make do with what he had here on earth. No m
atter how insufficient that happened to be.
***
Carter sighed and glanced at his watch. “I just don’t understand how anybody mates on this planet. It’s absurd!”
Max laughed. “I managed.”
“That’s different. You found your fated one! The last three women I dated were far from descendants, though each of them had the potential. Do you know what happened with the second woman?”
Max shook his head, his shoulders quaking with silent laughter. Apparently, Carter was getting animated in his agitation, but he didn’t care.
“It turned out that she still lives with her former mate! How can they even do things like that?! How can they mate and mate and mate without ever settling down? It makes no sense to me at all!”
Max frowned. “She lived with her former mate? What?”
“That’s what I said!” Carter exclaimed. “I don’t get this at all!”
Max shook his head. “No, that’s strange. If they are no longer even mates, how is that excusable?”
Carter threw his hands in the air in exasperation. “I don’t know, but I ended the date right then and there. After learning something like that, it’s obvious that she lacks the loyalty, or the common decency, to be our kind. We are noble. Loyal! And she is…”
“Not so much,” Max finished for him.
Carter nodded and sighed heavily. “This is ridiculous. I will never find my fated one at this rate. At least not on Earth. Do you think it’s possible my mate lives on Fiora like TJ’s?”
“Well, he only suspects she was his fated. But when a female is your fated, you know for sure. You feel it in your bones. And there are many indications. Fate continues to bring you together. There is no avoiding your fate.”
Carter considered this and sighed. “Perhaps that woman and her ex mate are fated.”