Desired by Dragons (Dragon Shifter Mega Bundle)

by Scarlett Grove

  “If you insist, I will sit with you while you try on clothing. Would that make you happy?” he said with a big patronizing smile on his face.

  “That would make me so happy, darling,” she said, wrapping her arm around his as they walked into the boutique.

  The women inside were just as thrilled to see them as the ones in the shoe shop. They went about finding Desdemona the perfect dress for an evening out with Lord Titus. She ended up picking a gold sequined mini dress that accentuated her soft curves and showed an alarming amount of cleavage. She picked it specifically because of the look on Titus’s face when she showed it to him. His pupils had dilated and his lips parted in a micro expression that was not lost on her, no matter how quickly he tried to cover it.

  Titus then took her to a salon where she had her hair and makeup done. It was then that Titus finally slipped away and told her he would have a car take her back to the penthouse. She tried to stop him, because torturing him with so much fun. She really was at a loss as to what else to do since she’d been sold to this man. But he quickly made his excuses and slipped away before she could stop him.

  The stylist did her long black hair in soft ringlet curls that hung around her shoulders enticingly. She did Desdemona’s eyes with neutral browns with black mascara, but gave her wine-kissed lips to complete the look.

  Desdemona emerged onto the sidewalk to find Titus’s car waiting for her, the driver standing beside the passenger door. He opened it as soon as he saw her, and Desdemona climbed inside. The car was luxurious and comfortable. She was going to have to get used to luxury now that she was trapped here in this strange city with this man who wanted to sink his teeth into her neck and claim her as his own.

  The driver took her back to Titus’s penthouse and she quickly changed into her gold sequined dress and her gold heels. When she was done dressing, she rode the elevator back downstairs and climbed back into the town car. The driver took her across town and parked in front of a fancy downtown restaurant before getting out of the car and opening the door for her. He offered her his hand so that she could step out onto the sidewalk. She wore a soft fur cloak around her shoulders in a pale off-white that looked beautiful contrasted against her dark skin and the gold sequence dress she wore.

  She entered the restaurant and was immediately greeted by the maître d’ who fussed over her and led her directly to Titus’s private table. The restaurant was lit by candlelight. Each table had a pressed linen tablecloth, set with crystal wineglasses and porcelain china. Everyone was dressed as nicely as she was and when she finally approached the table, Titus stood. He was wearing a fresh suit, as black as the last but tailored more fashionably. She could see the masculine outline of his body under the formfitting fabric. He wore a red tie that accentuated the blush of his lips.

  He reached out to touch her as he stood and the feeling of his hand on her arm made her tingle all over. The maître d’ pulled out her chair and helped her sit. Titus sat across from her, his silver-blue eyes sparkling in the candlelight between them. She could see desire spark in his eyes and in the blush of his cheeks. Desdemona was not a mind reader like the Arch-Priestess Lucia, but she believed she had a strong sense for people. She could sense that Titus desired her. If she was being honest with herself, she desired him too.

  “You look lovely, my dear,” he said assessing her with his calculating eyes.

  “You look lovely too,” she said, trying to mock him.

  Her energy for brattiness and mockery was ebbing. The longer she spent with him, the more attracted she became. He had suggested he would claim her tonight. Something she still did not intend to allow him to do. She bit her lip at the thought of it. Maybe someday, allowing him to have his way with her wouldn’t be the most terrible thing that had ever happened. She grabbed her menu and started to study it.

  “What’s good here?” she asked.

  “I prefer the surf and turf myself,” he said, reaching out to grab his crystal wineglass with his manicured hand.

  All her life, Desdemona had been a small-town girl. She’d never been out on a date with a man like Titus. In fact, she’d never met a man like Titus. They didn’t tend to frequent small mountain towns in Northern California.

  She’d spent most of her life around people wearing flannel shirts who drove pickup trucks and grew hay for a living. She didn’t even know how to speak to a man like Titus. If she wasn’t teasing or mocking him, she had no idea what to say. Being a pest was easy. Relating to him as a real person, as a man; that was a different thing entirely.

  “That’s what I’ll have then,” she said, closing her menu.

  She’d never been to a restaurant like this and had never read a menu with offerings like this one. Last time she’d eaten out, she’d had chicken fried steak and a baked potato in foil.

  It blew her mind that such luxurious food was available to some, when there were so many humans starving and struggling to survive. She looked up at him, remembering who she was and what she believed in.

  “How do you manage to have such fine things when there are so many who go without?”

  “You did learn about the histories of the immortals while you were at the temple, didn’t you?”

  “Yes. But I am not one hundred percent convinced any of that’s true. And it doesn’t answer my question either. My question was how do you have this luxury when so many humans are starving?”

  “I’ve done everything I can for the humans in my region. That is where my responsibility ends. As you can see, my city has been transformed. It is a shining example of what can be done for the human populations.”

  “Regardless of what you’ve done for the city. It’s nothing. It’s a drop in the bucket. Surely, a five-thousand-year-old immortal knows that. What, does your ivory tower protect you from the reality of the pathetic humans living around you?”

  “Are you ready to order?” the waiter said, walking up to their table.

  “We’ll both have the surf and turf,” Titus said, ordering for them both.

  “Anything to drink for the lady?”

  “We’ll both have a bottle of your best champagne. We are celebrating our engagement today,” Titus said, giving her a pointed look.

  “Champagne,” she said, clapping her hands together like a little girl. “Oh goody. We have so much to celebrate.”

  The waiter took their menus and walked away, looking confused.

  “I’m an ancient and powerful immortal, Desdemona. Don’t you think the Alpha of the Silverdrake clan and the man who restored an entire human region deserves some luxuries?”

  “You deserve more than others because you’re so old?”

  “I’ve been alive a long time, working for what I have. The world over the last five thousand years has been a dangerous place.”

  “That must have sucked,” she said as the waiter returned with a bottle of champagne. He popped the cork and poured the bubbling golden liquid into two flutes. Desdemona had only ever had a few sips of alcohol in her entire life. She lifted her champagne flute and emptied it in one go. By the time she set it back on the table, she was already regretting her decision.

  “That’s putting it mildly,” he said flatly. Then he narrowed his eyes at her. “You cannot hold your liquor, can you?”

  “I’m fine. I drink all the time.”

  “You never drink. I can smell it on you. I can smell a lot about you, Desdemona,” he said with a growl.

  Desdemona bristled at his words, knowing exactly what he was talking about. He knew she was a virgin and he was going to use that fact against her. How? She didn’t know. But from what little she knew about Titus, she wouldn’t put it past him.

  Chapter 10

  After dinner and the most delicious dessert that Desdemona had ever eaten, Titus escorted her from the restaurant, his big hand cupping the small of her back. His town car waited outside on the sidewalk. They climbed in to the luxurious leather backseat and the driver closed the door against the wintry chill.
The date had taken her through a range of emotions she hadn’t expected. Titus’s overpowering good looks and uncanny understanding of who she really was left her feeling shaken and exposed.

  As they crossed town in the backseat of the town car, Titus silently checked his glass pad, then put it back in his suit pocket and frowned.

  “What is it?” Desdemona asked.

  “My nephew Ajax is organizing an immortal football league and already has enough players for a game tomorrow. He wants to make it a holiday celebration for humans and immortals alike.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  “There’s so much work to be done, the frivolity of a sports game seems a waste of time.”

  “Don’t you think it would be helpful to distract people from their troubles?”

  “I suppose. Ajax won’t take no for an answer so that’s that.”

  They parked in the underground lot below Silverdrake Tower. As they rode upstairs in the elevator, Titus stood behind her, his hand resting on the safety rail along the wall. She could feel the heat of his breath, and it sent a tingle down her spine. She bit her lip, not knowing what to expect. She had been playing with him ever since she’d arrived, making comments about their grand wedding and waiting for their wedding night for him to claim her. Now she had those expectations locked into the public around them.

  As the elevator doors slid open, Desdemona knew that the ball was now in his court. The entrance hall to his penthouse had a huge flower arrangement in front of the mirror. Desdemona looked into Titus’s face in the mirror as they walked to the front door of his suite. His eyes burned with a cool blue intensity she couldn’t quite read.

  He placed his hand on the identity scanner and his door slid open. They entered an open living room with windows that looked out onto the city on one side and the river on the other. Everything was so nicely arranged and exuded splendor and quality. It was so far away from how Desdemona had lived after the Dark Sun. Not even her rooms in the mansion at the temple could compare to how Titus lived.

  She started down the hallway to her bedroom, thinking she would go to sleep. But Titus followed her and stood beside her as she opened her bedroom door.

  “I’m tired,” she said nervously. “It’s been a long day.”

  “Desdemona,” he said in a low voice. She saw his nostrils flare as he breathed in the air around her, taking in her scent.

  “Yes?” she breathed.

  He reached across her doorway, resting his hand on the doorframe, blocking her.

  “Do you really think this is going to wait for six months?”

  “I thought you didn’t care.”

  “I’m a man who doesn’t like waiting. I prefer to get things done sooner rather than later. That includes you.”

  Desdemona gasped at his words, but tried to hide her shock. She narrowed her eyes at him and pursed her lips.

  “There you go again with that post-apocalyptic romantic talk.”

  “I doubt you know anything about romance, my dear girl,” he said.

  “And I doubt that you will be the one to teach me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really am tired.”

  She turned the doorknob and brushed past his arm. He let her go and she looked at him nervously as she started to close the door.

  “And if not me, then who?”

  “That’s good question, isn’t it?”

  “There is no question, my dear. You and I are to be mated. We chose each other at the temple and those decisions are binding. Tomorrow I will take you on another date. I know it’s something humans enjoy so I will give you that,” he said, accentuating the word ‘humans’.

  She bristled at it, knowing it was a veiled insult. Even if she was no longer human, she would always think of herself that way.

  “Tomorrow I will take you for a ride in my jet and then we’ll go see Ajax’s ridiculous football game in the Superdome. You should dress warmly.”

  With that he stepped away and turned to his own bedroom door, quickly stepping inside and disappearing from her view. She was left stunned and gawking at his closed door. He really did have a lot of nerve, but she supposed he was in some ways justified. They had made an agreement, regardless of how little either of them wanted to do it.

  Whatever had been between them before, he hadn’t bothered to fully explain and she hadn’t asked. She closed her door and stepped into her bedchamber feeling irritable and excited at the same time. Part of her wished that he had grabbed her and kissed her right there in the hallway.

  It was a deep ache she’d been feeling since she’d met him, perhaps thousands of years ago. She also despised this man, no matter how attracted she was to him. He had done something to her in the past. Let her down, brushed her off, rejected her in a way she couldn’t forgive. And she had died alone, sacrificed herself for an ancient battle she didn’t understand.

  She shook her head and groaned, wanting to brush it all aside. That old life had nothing to do with her. Nineteen-year-old Desdemona Hawthorne, from the mountains of Northern California, had nothing to do with this immortal war.

  And she resented the fact that she had been forced into it because of something she couldn’t control. Up until three months ago, she had no idea that she had this genetic lineage, linking her to some ancient goddess. She still didn’t want any part of it.

  But not wanting to be part of it wasn’t going to change anything. She was part of it, critically entwined in the dramas and politics of the immortal races, even if she couldn’t remember it. The only reasonable thing would be to simply deal with her reality and accept it. She has been raised to work hard and to be a strong person, but that was also part of the reason she couldn’t accept her fate.

  She believed in her own will and in her own power more than just about anything else. She had received several letters from her father at the temple, and she hoped that they would still be able to contact her now that she was with Titus.

  She crossed the room and sat at the end of her bed, looking out at the dark outline of the Mississippi River. She had never been this far east before, having spent most of her life in California with a few trips into Oregon and Washington, as well as that one time they went to Arizona. She had never been in an airplane before, let alone a hovercraft jet like Titus’s.

  He wanted to take her out again tomorrow, and she didn’t know what she should do. Titus was the kind of man who was used to getting what he wanted. Whether or not he wanted her specifically, he did want to claim her and fulfill his duty as Alpha of the Silverdrake clan. She hated that she was being used this way.

  She thought about about the other man who had loved her in her dreams. His name was Kyran, according to Titus. She had never quite pinned down either of their names in her dreams. Where was he? Had he really loved her in the past? How would he feel if he knew that Titus wanted to claim her and make her his? Would Kyran be a better alternative than Titus even though Titus had taken her from the temple? He still hadn’t claimed her. That was the one and only way to keep a witch from other immortals.

  She peeled out of her gold sparkly mini dress and kicked off her heels. She put everything away in the well-organized walk-in closet off the side of her bedroom and slipped into a nightgown. In the morning, she would have to be around Titus again. She hoped that, at least in her sleep, she could get a break from him.

  Desdemona slipped under the blankets on her big comfy bed and lay on her fluffy goose down pillow. Everything was so comfortable and soft in this life she now lived. There were no classes, no other witches to pressure her to push herself. She was completely taken care of here, in the lap of luxury.

  As she lay awake in bed, she contemplated how she felt about her new life. At nineteen, she was being offered a life of leisure, so unlike the life she’d lived before she went to the temple.

  Did her magic even matter anymore? Titus didn’t seem to care how gifted she was at music. He hadn’t even asked about her life or her interests or her magic. Could she live with
a man so distant, who clearly had no affection for her?

  She didn’t know. Her father had been a stern man. In many ways, Titus was a lot like him. Part of her almost accepted it as normal. But the other part of her wanted to rebel against it so hard it made his head spin.

  With her thoughts whirling, she couldn’t fall asleep for a long time. When she finally drifted into the blackness of sleep, she fell into vivid dreams.

  The blue sky of their Mediterranean homeland spread out above the marble pillars of the ancient temple of Gama. Desdemona stood with the other witches in the inner courtyard while their Arch-Priestess stood at the outer gazing pool.

  Their collective magic would put an end to the immortal war. Gama’s love of her human children and her love of the female immortals demanded they stop the dragons and vampires from fighting over dominance of the world.

  It had torn up the skies for a thousand years. So many had died on all sides, immortals and humans alike. The Arch-Priestess’s own sons had even died in the war. Her heart had been broken by loss, and even she was willing to give herself to save the world, even as a new baby grew in her belly. Even as her husband begged her not to do it.

  All the priestesses of the ancient temple agreed. Desdemona, who was known was Patrice back then, had nothing to lose. Her love for Titus was a broken dream.

  Since the first day she’d seen Titus in the courtyard of the temple, she’d loved him. Even if she was but a girl of seventeen and he was a three-thousand-year-old dragon, she still adored him. Everything in her wanted to serve him and keep him happy for the rest of her immortal life. She’d never been so sure of anything.

  But after years of waiting for him to notice her, he only came to her after Kyran had given her a promise rose to spite his old friend and ally. Their rivalry had affected his judgment and Titus had come to her just to win against Kyran.