DRAGON'S GAP: Set Includes Stories 1-3 Plus Love's Catalyst

by L M Lacee

  Oh, we should not forget our three year old tiger cub Kammy who Claire rescued then adopted. Without Kammy her new mummy and her new daddy would never have found each other. She is a catalyst for love.

  CHAPTER ONE:

  K ammy Nash, three year old tiger cub to Claire Nash, niece to the Dragon Lord and Lady was on a mission!

  Kammy stopped walking and sat down as she thought about what she was doing. She had run away from her Auntie June’s home because she was on a Mission.

  She scratched behind her ear with her little claws as she thought about the word Mission. Scratching behind the other ear she thought how much she liked that word. She even knew what it meant. It was when her Uncle Storm had to do somefing important and had to go away. Just like her mama was doing somefing important for Auntie Sage. Thinking of her uncle Storm made her think of her uncle Rain. Then that made her think of her coosins Molly and Ava. But somtimes she felt bad, because they was really lucky. They had a dada and he was a dragon. Somtimes Molly’s dada let her sit on his back with Molly, and he would take them flying when he was in his dragon skin. Kammy sighed, she so wanted her own dada.

  Then she smiled as she thought of her mama. She was happy she had a mama now and her mama was fieece. That was what Auntie Sage called her. Kammy’s smile morphed into a frown. Edee said her mama had… Kammy thought really hard then smiled when she remembered the word Edee used.

  Issuues…Yeah, because it sounded like tissues and tissues was good to play wif. Issuues! Kammy growled low because she did not like, issuues. They made mama sad. She and Molly had tried to find the issuues and make them go away but they was hard to find.

  Kammy growled again low in her throat like she did sometimes when she was unhappy or scared. She stood and stretched. Her mama didn’t know she knew about the issuues that had caused all the hurts on her when Granma Grace had gone away. Kammy smiled. Her new dada would find them and make them go away. Then her mama would smile because she was happy.

  Kammy sighed and scratch her face then remembered what she was doing. She growled, like she saw Auntie Jacks do to Uncle Stan when he forgot something. She, Kammy Nash was on a mission!

  Her mama esplained shiftin into her tiger skin, when she went from her pink skin wif two legs to her tiger skin wif four legs and a tail. She looked behind her to see if her tail was there, it was sneaky sometimes.

  She had sneaked out the door of her auntie June’s home when she was in the kitchen. And had run down all the steps real fast like Auntie Jacks showed her. She was sad that she had not told Auntie June she was going to look for her dada because she liked staying with Auntie June.

  She had her own bed and Auntie June liked to snuggle and she liked reading books to her when mama was not home. She knew they were only with Auntie June until her mama gotsa own furnita for their new home.

  She could not wait for her new home it was gonna be good, mama said so. Auntie June’s home was like her Granma Grace’s home, it always smelled of cookies and she loved cookies; she really did, they made her tummy sing .She stopped walking again and sat on her rump as she shook her head. Her mama made bad cookies they was always black and hard, they did not smell good. She was sad, but mama could not make cookies. She sighed, she did not think she could live with no cookies. Auntie Sage said her mama could not cook water, who was gonna make food when they went to their new home. She chewed on her tail as she thought on that. Then smiled, her new dada would make food for her and her mama. She sniffed her tail and then remembered her Mission.

  She was still a little jumpy in her tummy, it had been scary running across the road. She had to run real fast, so the cars would not squish her like mama said they would. She had scented her new dada at her Auntie June’s home. Auntie Jacks called them intincts that made shiftas know stuff. She was a shifta likes Molly so when her dada had come to talk to her auntie June her intincts told her he was her dada.

  By the time she untangled herself from the stupid. That was what mama called things that made her mad. Her stupid blanket which she had hid under to see if she could see the dark, her dada was gone.

  She did not even know what he looked like, but she had put her nose to the floor by the front door and sniffed real hard. Just like Auntie Jacks showed her to do. She smelled him real good. So when Auntie June was not looking she got her tiger skin on. And followed him all the way to the busy place mama and her aunties took her to with Molly and Ava. She looked around and then she crouched down by the brick wall and sniffed hard. Lifting her head up really high she could finally see her dada, he was sitting at a table on the street he looked sad. Kammy cocked her head to the side. Her new dada was sad because he did not know about her and mama. He did not smells them like Kammy smelled him or maybe it was because he knew mama made bad cookies. She would tell him Auntie June made good cookies.

  Kammy eyed the space between her and her new daddy. She looked around and saw a box and pushed really hard with her nose and finally moved it to where she wanted it to go. She panted as she sat and looked at it again, she nodded her head and knew she could do it.

  Now if she used the box, she could just jump to the table where her new daddy was. Just then people walked past, she ducked down against the wall and looked around. Fear gripped her, making her heart beat faster, she sniffed the air. Good, her auntie June was not here yet. She knew her auntie June would be all growly because she had sneaked out of her home. She would be really growly if she could see her jumping.

  Mama and Auntie June always tells her not to jump on the bed even though she was a good jumper Uncle Rain said so. Kammy eyed the box again, when she did the jump thing her dada would see her and be happy and then her mama would be happy too. She froze as she heard a yell.

  “Kammy! Kammy!”

  Oh no! That was her auntie June. Kammy stood up and looked around she couldn’t see her anywhere but Kammy knew what her voice sounded like really well.

  She leant down on her front paws and wiggled her bottom in the air like she did when she was ready to jump on her mama’s bed. Then she narrowed her eyes and growled and wiggled harder. Without looking anywhere but at the box. Kammy ran and jumped…

  CHAPTER TWO:

  L ars drank his coffee and thought over the changes made to Dragon’s Gap. It was no longer a blip on a non-existent map. Now it was a medium sized town, growing into a large thriving city, complete with castle.

  He laughed to himself as he thought of how the shifters seemed amazed by what they, the dragons, had always taken for granted. The castle.

  Which always materialized eventually whenever the town needed it. Trying to explain that the castle was always there, just shifted out of time was very difficult to people who only understood basic Earth magic. Eventually the dragons had all learnt to just say magic had hidden it. Which in essence was true but not the complete truth and if Lars was honest with himself, he did not understand it either. It was Dragon Lord Magic, and that was all he knew and all he really wanted to know.

  As he looked around, he saw another Hunter running a circuit of the town, all morning he had caught glimpses of Shields and Hunters. He smiled pleased that they were starting to mingle with the town’s people or at least were willing to enter the town. Reighn’s plan was working.

  He realized there was a large and diverse population within Dragon’s Gap now. There seemed to be humans and shifters of all species, interlaced with the reclusive Dragons. All living and working together, adding to the vibrancy of the town, allowing it to find its new balance. There were dragons who at long last were realizing there was more to life than just their own species. And were enjoying the diverse cultures of the peoples of Dragon’s Gap and what they brought to their lives and the life of the town. Or at least that was what the reports he received each week told him. And he like his family were really happy about that. While the dragons had hidden away, watching their lives and culture fade from the lack of female dragons and shadows being found, other species had grown and evolved. />
  Reighn’s decree that life for dragon kind had to change had come as such a shock to some of them. Thankfully not all dragons were blind to the changing world around them. Most of them could already see and embrace the changes that were happening at Dragon’s Gap.

  Unfortunately even now not enough of them were waking up to the fact they were in a new world. The older dragons found the changes harder to accept unlike the younger dragons, like himself who saw it and enjoyed the challenge of the new world. The Elder dragons and nobility even now months later after Reighn’s decrees, still needed to wake up and see what was happening around them. Hopefully, they would realize soon that the world would not stand still for them.

  Lars could feel that the world of shifters and dragons was on the cusp of evolution. Unlike the stubborn nobles who fought the changes and clung harder to the way of life, they once knew. He could not wait for the new world to happen. As far as he was, concerned change was good for growth just like change had been good for the town.

  It amazed him that some people were self-involved, like his birth family who had been taken by complete surprise with the declarations and ultimatums, delivered by their Dragon Lord. Sadly Lars had not been at all surprised to see that his birth parents and grandparents had aligned themselves with John Morton at court. Nor was he surprised they had not dissociated themselves when given the opportunity to do so. Lars snorted quietly to himself when he thought back on how it had not taken his birth family long to demand his presence at their estate. The morning after the public trial of the treasonous councilors. It was a strange experience to be ordered anywhere by people he did not really know or care about.

  CHAPTER THREE:

  H e had been five years old when he had been fostered to the Kingsley’s. It was years later when he had found out that Rene` Kingsley, the Dragon Lord at the time had removed him from his parents’ home.

  Apparently Rene` had been there for a meeting when he had seen the tiny malnourished boy wiggle out of a hole in the wall of his Sire’s study. The hole had led to the cellar where he stayed.

  Lars had crawled out because. One, Rene` Kingsley had been the Dragon Lord and his dragon had called to him, how his dragon had known Lars was there remained a mystery for many years. Secondly, he was starving, how long since he had eaten was never determined.

  It was not that his parents were really cruel they were not even just neglectful. His birth had been a surprise to people who did not desire young or so he was led to believe from Mama Verity. She told him that it was not that they did not love him. They were incapable of love and were just too self-involved to understand they had to actually see to his well-being!

  Mama Verity did not dislike or like his birth parents, or so he assumed, as she had never voiced an opinion either way. He thought maybe she felt unable to actually explain people like them as she was so very different.

  Papa Rene`, Lars knew thought otherwise. He despised Lars’s birth parents and grandparents and made sure Lars was never returned to them. So at five years of age, Lars had become Rene` and Verity’s ward. She as Dragon Lady, had reintroduced the term Nest brother or sister to Dragon kind, which he knew in the human world meant foster child. He believed Lady Verity did so mainly to save his parents and grandparents reputation.

  Lars’s brother Storm had told him many years later when they had spent a night consuming dragon’s ale. That their father had known what the expression on Lars’s father’s face had been on the day when Lars had crawled from the hole in the wall into his study. His birth father had been more surprised than Rene` to see the appearance of the thin, filthy child and honestly did not remember he was his son. They, his birth mother and father literally had forgotten all about him. It was not neglect Lars knew, it was absolute disinterest.

  When he was in the first flush of adulthood, he had found out his Dam’s parents had died many years before his birth and that his Sire’s parents when asked if they would take the small boy, declined. Stating they had raised one child for the dragon nation and did not feel it was their duty to do so again.

  It was not common knowledge how Lars had ended up as a nest brother to Reighn and his brothers. Most assumed that Verity and Rene` chose him because of who his parents were, and in a way they were right. As he grew older Lars found out that his parents and grandparents traded on this relationship and that Rene` turned a blind eye to their behavior, because of him. He, of course, did not, when he was in a position to halt it he did. Much to their displeasure. Because it seemed their wealth decreased as did their reputation. Lars laughed as he sipped his coffee remembering the past always made him feel sad and glad he was alive today in this wonderful new world. He especially enjoyed and derived quiet amusement from all the rumors that always seemed to be circulating about how and why he was Reighn’s primary second, or Prime and not any of Reighn’s brothers.

  He always declined to explain Reighn’s reasons for his choice of Prime as did Reighn himself. Firstly, his relationship to Reighn was no one else’s business and secondly, he was well suited to the position as Reighn’s Prime. His calm disposition, so unlike the fiery nature of the Kingsley males was a big factor in why he was selected but in truth the number one reason he was Reighn’s Prime was because not one of Reighn’s brothers including their other nest brother Stanvis wanted to do it!

  All the brothers had declined so quickly, when asked, it would have left a dragons head spinning. Stanvis had declined due he said to his short patience and a sword happy hand, which was true. Everyone knew his default was to let his sword do his talking for him. So Stanvis was very happy to be second to Lars, leaving the bulk of interaction with the dragon society up to Lars and Reighn.

  When the summons from his birth parents had arrived on that fateful morning. He had been in two minds whether he wanted to go to the family estate or ignore the order.

  Half of him was annoyed at the thought that his birth family felt they had the right to demand his presence, and the other half had been curious as to why they wished to see him. Now, sometimes like last night he wished he had ignored the summons.

  His dragon said. It would not have made a difference they wanted to bring down the dragon nation!

  I know still so many deaths could have been avoided.

  His dragon asked quietly. Why are you thinking of that time? It is in the past.

  Yet because of the dreams. I feel this morning the memories are still fresh.

  Lars’s dragon sighed as he remembered that it was seldom they sought him out in those days and when on occasion they did. It was to demand him return to the family or reinstate their favor to the Dragon Lord, which he always declined to do. The worse was when they wanted to introduce him to a female, which he usually refused to meet.

  On that morning, when he had finished his breakfast which he had lingered over. Then taken a leisurely shower, spent countless minutes deciding on his attire, he had finally decided he would indeed visit their estate. Curiosity had overcome his reluctance.

  As he was making his way out of the castle Storm had stopped him. Lars had eyed his brother to see he was calm, and his dragon was not on the surface of his skin. He, like Reighn knew Storm was on the edge of going rogue although he had seemed more settled of late. “Brother!”

  “Where are you going so early, without a guard?” Storm demanded.

  Lars smiled at that. Storm was blunt, no niceties for him or idle chit chat, and at least that part of his brother was the same. He told him. “The Axton’s ordered me to meet with them!”

  Storm’s eyes became chips of black ice. He disliked the Axton’s, Lars’s parents and grandparents. He did not like what they had done to his brother. He had been old enough at the time to remember his Sire. When he had come home with the little scared, sickly dragonet with the wide grey eyes that held no expectations. No hope and no wonder at the world. It had hurt Storm’s heart, and he had wanted to go and rip their faces off. Reighn had spent hours in those first few days talking him o
ut of it. As time had past Storm had kept his eyes on the Axton parents and now they dared to order his brother to their home. His voice held his dragon as he said. “No!”

  Lars nodded, he had guessed that would be his response. “My thoughts as well, then I thought why not. I am an adult. They have no hold on me. You are all my family. I use their name as is my right and it annoys them! My continued rebuff of their demands to return to their family and reinstate the favors of the Dragon Lord. As well as their insistence, I accept a female they choose, embarrasses them. Which I can tell you I consider a bonus but it is not for just those reasons I do not capitulate.” He smiled as he said to Storm. “What they do not realize is they are not my family. It does not matter how often they recite I am. Nothing! They can say to me or demand of me means anything. A family is more than a name, you and our family taught me that!”

  Storm’s scowl did not change, but he clapped him on the back. “Alright but remember you are part of my family. I will not hesitate to take their heads if they hurt you!”

  Lars inclined his head. “Thank you brother, I will keep that in mind.”

  Storm nodded and carried on into the castle. Lars gave it a fleeting thought that he would go to Reighn or Mama Verity, then shrugged, Storm being Storm he would probably not.

  In that he was wrong, Storm was not fooled as much as Lars looked calm, he felt his tension and unease. So he did not go to Reighn who would have flown directly to the Axton family home and leveled it as he had promised to do on many occasions. He went instead to his Sire who was making preparations to leave, in fact he caught him as he was walking to the training grounds. “My son!”