The Dragon's Rebellious Sacrifice: a Dragon Shifter Romance (The Last Dragons Book 4)

by Ines Johnson

  That brought Rose’s attention away from the platter of food in Poppy’s hand. But only for an instant. Gastroparesis had no cure. All they could do was manage the symptoms.

  Except Rose wasn’t feeling the normal chill in her blood. The fatigue that plagued her bones was surprisingly absent. Most surprising, her stomach grumbled. Not in rejection. That was hunger pains she was feeling.

  “Where are my manners?” said Poppy. “You want some?”

  Poppy held the plate out to Rose and Lily. Up close, the scent-wave slapped her in the face. Before Rose knew what she was doing, she reached out for one of the square treats.

  Was this a brownie? Rose had never had a brownie before. It went down her throat with the same ease as a kid slipping down a sliding board on a warm summer’s day.

  She felt the food pass down her chest and work its way lower. She froze in fear as its descent continued. Any moment now, her stomach muscles would become uncoordinated, and the food would come back up.

  Except the clenching never came. What did come was a sugar rush so big and powerful that Rose saw a light so bright, she was certain she’d died, and this was heaven.

  The food stayed down. Without any medicine. It was a miracle—one that Rose wasn’t going to pass up.

  She turned and handed a large square to Lily. Lily looked at the food warily. But the same scent wave must have slapped her in the face because she took a bite. And then another. There were tears in Lily’s eyes when she looked back at her sister.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” said Chryssie. “You’re thinking you’re dead. I thought that too. But you’re not. You’re back where you belong.”

  “You’re beyond the Veil,” said Cardi. “It’s technically the Garden of Eden. A place where God—actually the Goddess—tinkered with her creations. Dragons are one of those creations, and you’re part dragon.”

  Part dragon? Part angel? Part demon? Rose didn’t care, so long as she could eat like a normal person. So long as she’d go through a day where her body wasn’t attacking itself. And, hell, if she could have a brownie, then that was even better than having a cherry on top.

  “What’s the catch?” said Rose, grabbing another treat from Poppy’s plate.

  “You get to stay here in this castle,” said Chryssie.

  “You’ll live longer than your normal human life, so long as you don’t cross back over the Veil,” said Cardi.

  Rose licked her fingers, looking at each woman in turn. “The catch?”

  Cardi wet her glossy lips and then bit down on her bottom lip as she avoided their gazes. Chryssie tugged at the end of her ponytail, also while avoiding their gazes. Poppy turned back to the table to pile on more treats.

  “It’s going to sound worse than it actually is,” Chryssie finally said.

  Chapter Seven

  “Why will no one respect my dibs?”

  A plume of dark smoke accompanied Ilia’s huff of indignation. He crossed his arms over his chest, his muscles bulging with tension. A few of the threads of fabric snapped at the move. His brothers were lucky he didn’t snap at them with how tightly he was wound.

  “Everyone heard Kimber say I have dibs on the next sacrifice,” Ilia continued, pointing at each of his brothers in turn. “You’re all nothing but douches if you don’t respect the dibs.”

  “Do you even know what a douche is?” asked Corun.

  “Yeah, I do.” Ilia snapped his fingers, then cocked his thumb like a gun and his index finger like a barrel which pointed directly at Corun. “It’s you if you go back on your word.”

  Corun hung his head in his hands and let out a sigh. The sigh didn’t sound remorseful. Not like he was sorry for not recognizing Ilia’s dibs. It sounded annoyed, which he didn’t have any right to be. It was Ilia who was the wronged party here.

  “Ilia,” said Kimber, his deep voice resonate and sharp like the diamond gems he mined. “No one is questioning your dibs.”

  Ilia wanted to relax his posture. But he couldn’t. His years of being a runt, of being the last in line and often cut off by their father, didn’t allow him to let his guard down. Not even with his brothers when it came to a matter of getting what he was due.

  “Neither Elek or Rhoyl will approach your potential mate.”

  “Potential?” growled Ilia, the muscles in his back bunching at the sound of that word. “Rose isn’t potential anything. She’s mine.”

  “I thought her name was Lily,” said Corun.

  “It is,” said Ilia. “That’s what I said.”

  “That’s not what he said,” Corun said to Kimber.

  “The girls are twins,” Kimber shrugged. “He may have gotten them confused.”

  “They’re nothing alike,” said Ilia. “Lily is beautiful. She looks like she’s frail, but she has a strong set of lungs on her. Rose, on the other hand, Rose has a mouth on her. Her cheeks go red when she’s angry, fire red like she’s going to flame up. And she’s funny. She called my dick a carrot and said she’d cut it off with a spoon. Can you believe that? And Rose is brave. If she hadn’t been tied up, I’m sure she would’ve come at me. She did get in a shot. But her form was all wrong. And she barely has any strength. I’ll need to teach her how to throw a punch when…”

  Ilia trailed off when he noticed the looks Corun and Kimber kept sliding one another. His two older brothers had a habit of doing that; that silent communication between twins that Ilia had never managed with Beryl and Rhoyl. Because Ilia had always been shut out, cut off.

  Well, not this time.

  “I called dibs.” Ilia only just managed not to stomp his foot for emphasis. That would’ve made him look like a fledgling throwing a tantrum.

  “You have dibs,” said Kimber. “You get time to woo… whichever female you choose to give your attentions to.”

  “Lily,” said Ilia.

  “Right. Lily.” Kimber nodded. “But it’s only a matter of time before the others find out.”

  The thought of the lions, or bears, or wolves getting a whiff of either of the girls set Ilia’s molars to grinding. Neither Lily nor Rose belonged in a den or a cave. They were both princesses who belonged in a castle.

  Though he suspected Rose would probably insist on being a lady knight, like Sarah Connor in the second Terminator film. He could just imagine Rose in a black t-shirt with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, aviator glasses shielding her gaze, while an automatic rifle was slung over her shoulder.

  “She has to choose you,” Kimber was saying.

  “Who?” asked Ilia.

  Once again, Kimber and Corun exchanged one of those silent, twin looks.

  “Whichever one you and your dragon chooses to mate. Even though we all agree you have dibs, she has to choose you. And she has to do it before the others find out they’re here.”

  “She’ll choose me,” Ilia said. Of course, she would choose him. She was a damsel, and he was a hero. They were meant to be; all the storybooks, movies, and video games said so.

  “Which one?” Corun asked.

  “What do you mean, which one? Lily, of course.” Ilia’s belly grumbled as he made the last statement. Either he was hungry, or his dragon wanted to get to his woman sooner rather than later. He turned to leave but then hesitated. “What about Rose?”

  “What about her?” asked Corun, a brow raised in the way when he had just worked out a complex mathematical problem that no one else had a clue about.

  “We can’t let one of the others get their hands on her,” said Ilia. “She’s our family. She’s a fireblood. And I’m sure Lily won’t want to stay if she’s gone.”

  “Maybe she’ll choose Elek or Rhoyl,” said Kimber.

  Ilia pursed his lips. He couldn’t imagine that spitfire of a woman with quiet and contemplative Elek, who preferred to spend his time in the kitchens cooking or in the room with his comatose mother. But neither could he see Rose with Rhoyl, who had refused to shift back into male form for many years now.

  Rose wasn’t
a problem Ilia could solve at the moment. He had to first focus on his mate. He had to convince Lily that he was her hero. Otherwise, she might be carted off by other beasts.

  Chapter Eight

  So this was the catch. Hang out with the dragons to see if she might find one of them attractive enough to date. Yeah, like that would ever happen.

  It didn’t matter if they had balls or scales, Rose wasn’t attracted to men of any species. Not that she was attracted to women. She just wasn’t into sex. And that’s all men wanted was to look at naked women and pinch them in their soft and squishy places.

  No, thank you, and fuck off. That’s what she had to say to that.

  “Yes, please,” she said to Elek as he handed her another treat.

  It was a meat of some sort. Rose hadn’t bothered to question what species. Not when it fell off the bone and slid down her throat, all while bursting with spicy flavors she had never been able to stomach. She saw stars as she closed her eyes, hummed, and took another bite. It could be made of fairies for all she cared.

  Wait? Were fairies real? Probably if dragons were.

  Elek, the dragon, placed a helping of a colorful food on her plate next. It looked like a flower. It tasted like heaven. Rose was getting perilously close to offering the man-beast anything he wanted if he kept filling her belly like this.

  “That’s called Nanjinganthus Dendrostyla,” said Elek. “It’s an angiosperm that’s over one hundred million years old. It was the first flowering plant.”

  Rose waited for the dirty joke about her eating sperm. It didn’t come. Which would’ve been another joke. Elek turned back to open a pit stove and stirred some other delectable ingredients into a pot. Rose shoved the angiosperm into her mouth and swallowed.

  Man, if any homosapien could hear what was going on in her head, he would have a field day. Maybe dragons were different?

  Rose licked her fingers clean of the plant’s juices. It was the third dish she’d tried, not including the three brownies she’d scarfed down. And every morsel stayed in her belly. There wasn’t a grumble to be heard from the organ.

  However, she did hear a rumbling growl. She felt a squeezing contraction. In her throat, there was a gnawing need. As if everything inside her were crying out for more.

  These were hunger pangs. A sensation she’d only read about because she had felt an empty-fullness in her stomach all her life. Now, not only was Rose hungry, she could do something about it that didn’t involve careful meal planning after a dose of medication.

  Really, she might actually contemplate sleeping with Elek if he could make her belly feel this good.

  “So, this is the catch?” she said around a mouthful of the as yet unidentified meat.

  “You mean one of the games with a ball?” asked Elek as he gave a pan a shake.

  “Game, yes. But with your balls.”

  “My balls?”

  “You want me to play with your balls in exchange for this food, right?” Rose pointed at his package, which was covered by a pair of cotton pants and an apron with the words Your Opinion Was Not In The Recipe across his chest.

  Elek looked down at his groin area, then back at her. A quizzical expression furrowed his dark brows. “Why would I want that?”

  “Because you’re a man. And all men want sex.”

  “I’m not wholly a man. I’m part dragon. Also, I’m not interested in sex.”

  Rose sat back and gaped. In the silence that ensued, she heard the pop of oil in the pan. The sizzle of more meat and flowers cooking. And the grinding of bone under teeth.

  In the corner sat the blue scaled dragon. Rhoyl was his name. He had yet to change into his human form. But his expressions were strangely human-like. Rhoyl had devoured the meat of the dish and was now finishing off the bone. He looked up at Rose, and a grin spread over his elongated face.

  “So, he wants sex?” Rose asked, pointing to the dragon.

  A furrow developed between the dragon’s brows, making him look like an indignant devil.

  “I don’t think so,” said Elek. “Even if he did, I don’t think that would be safe for a woman to fornicate with him in that form. Or sanitary.”

  Now both the man and the beast were studying Rose with disconcerting expressions. As though she, the one who kept inside her skin and didn’t shift into another species, was the oddball in this scenario.

  “No, it’s not me,” said Rose, waving her hands. “I don’t want to have sex. You’re males. You’re the ones with dirty minds.”

  Rhoyl let out a huff and went back to his bone.

  Elek raised a brow and went back to his stirring. “The food is free, no strings or balls attached. Neither Rhoyl nor I are looking for a mate. But our brothers and sisters are hoping we do.”

  “Why?”

  “They think it will enable Rhoyl to shift back into his male form. If we don’t mate, then the dragon can take over.”

  “So, you’re stuck?” Rose asked Rhoyl.

  The dragon lifted one-winged shoulder in an approximation of a shrug. He didn’t seem concerned that he was stuck.

  Rose’s gaze shifted to Elek. “And you’ll get stuck as a dragon if you don’t… mate?”

  Elek lifted one of his shoulders in a shrug that also seemed unconcerned. “My beast is under control.”

  “So… this isn’t some kind of trick?” asked Rose. “You’re not trying to get in my pants?”

  “No.” Elek sat more food on her plate. “I wouldn’t fit in your pants. You barely fit in your pants. Eat up.”

  Rose pulled the plate to her. It was another helping of the meat dish, along with another flower. Looking at it, her mouth watered. But her belly protested. She knew that sign. It meant she was full. Only for the first time in her life, she believed it might be true.

  “Can I have a doggie bag?” she asked.

  Elek frowned.

  “It means can you wrap this up so I can save it for later.”

  “When you want more, I’ll make you more. Just ask.”

  Rose settled back in her chair. Her belly was full. She felt fatigued, but not the normal weariness of her life. She wasn’t sure what this full feeling was. But she realized there was one thing missing.

  “Where’s my sister?”

  “She’s probably with Ilia.”

  “Ilia?” Rose’s lip curled at that name. “The one who tied us up?”

  “The binding is a ritual,” said Elek. “We do it when we think we’ve found our mate. We bind her so that we can safely introduce the dragon to her, so that he can mark and claim her.”

  “But, wait.” Rose pushed back from the table. “You said I don’t have to mate.”

  “You don’t. It’s your choice. Ilia has made it known that he wants to claim your sister.”

  “He what?”

  “She has to accept.”

  “And if she doesn’t?”

  “Ah…” Elek put the spoon down. “There is the catch you mentioned.”

  Rose didn’t wait for an explanation. She took off out of the kitchens in search of her sister and that beast of a man Ilia. Who knew? He’d probably tied her up again.

  Chapter Nine

  Ilia sat on the couch next to his mate. There was enough distance between them to fit a whole body, maybe even two. But he could still smell Lily’s flowery scent. Although it was quickly being masked with the smell of cheese and processed meat.

  Lily sat in the very corner of the couch. Her profile was to Ilia as she continually reached over to the side table. On the side table were Ilia’s daily snacks, which were dwindling fast under Lily’s attention.

  In her hands were circular disks of bologna, a square block of neon-orange cheese, which she stacked between ridged crackers like a sandwich. She crunched into the Lunchable in two bites. When she was done, she licked her fingers and began a new stack.

  Ilia watched as his snack stash was quickly depleted. Already, Lily had devoured two Twinkies, a cherry Hostess Pudding Pie, and she was ey
eing the Cheese Balls near his gaming console. As she was done with the meat, cheese, and crackers of the Lunchable, she now turned her attention to the dessert portion of the meal. With a flick of her painted thumb, she popped open the small box of Nerds and dumped them in her mouth. When she caught him watching, she froze.

  Ilia could tell that the hard candies were still on her tongue. She hadn’t swallowed them down yet. She stayed still, like one of those life-sized mannequin dolls. He remembered watching a movie called Mannequin where a woman was frozen in a substance called plastic. She only came alive when she was alone with her fated mate.

  Well, Ilia was alone with the woman he was fated to be with for the rest of his days. She sat lifeless. The flowery scent of her turned dull. At least there wasn’t the acrid scent of fear coming off her, which made him glad. Though he wasn’t sure he’d be able to tell over the sugary, cheesy, bologna smell.

  “So, Lily… we should get to know each other better.”

  Lily’s jaw moved, crunching the Nerds first on the left side of her jowls, then the right. Finally, she swallowed. She cleared her throat, but the only sound she made was a murmur of acquiescence.

  Ilia searched for a topic of conversation. He felt like Brian Johnson in The Breakfast Club. The nerdy kid who didn’t get either hot Claire or basket-case Allison. At the moment, Ilia wasn’t even sure how to talk to a girl. It had never been this hard with a fairy. He’d simply crook a finger, and they’d come, to him and for him.

  All of which meant he could do this. She was human. And she was his.

  “So… what’s your favorite movie?”

  Lily cleared her throat a couple more times. Her gaze swinging back to the snacks as she answered. “I really didn’t get out to the theaters much.”

  “But you’re from Hollywood?”

  “LA.”

  “That’s where Arnold Schwarzenegger lives. Did you know him?”

  “No.”

  “Well, I suppose not. He is a big movie star. And he rules California, right?”