by Lisa Daniels
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
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Date with a Dragon
Date Monsters Shifter Dating Service
Book 1
By: Lisa Daniels
Prologue
The mining town of Geevor is a sleepy one. Nothing much ever happens here. Not many tourists come because there’s barely anything to see or do, which suits the locals just fine. They don’t want a bunch of strangers clogging up their streets. Most people wouldn’t know where to pinpoint Geevor on a map, either. Just how their ancestors wanted it during the gold rush, back in the good old days of the wild west. The sheriff’s department can fall asleep at their desks, crumbs dotting their uniform, and they won’t be missing much in the way of crime.
But not everyone is content to leave things as they are. There are some individuals who want more out of life. These individuals look elsewhere for fulfilment, help, friendship, and more. They hire themselves dates to break out the monotony of their lives… or to lie to others.
Geevor certainly isn’t short of that kind of men and women. And what follows now is but one of their tales, as they add more life and danger to the mining town than any would dare suspect…
Chapter One – Lena
It started with the Facebook announcement from Geevor High. Class of 2009 reunion! Who’s coming? Got to start organizing a year in advance, because we know how busy everyone is! Along with invites to everyone in Lena’s year to see who was interested. The person organizing it was Chloe Galer, most popular girl that year, voted Most Likely to Succeed in Life. She even had a damn sash. Certainly, Galer had succeeded and then some. Lena stalked through Galer’s picture-perfect Facebook and Instagram, with her beautiful blonde curls and manicured fingers, smiling, rich, shapeshifting husband (Was he a werewolf? He had yellow eyes…), her constant holidays splashed everywhere, and enough selfies to cover a house with.
Hunched over her phone, Lena examined the inclusive group page, an uneasy stirring in her gut. Yeah. Lena might be slightly jealous. Hard not to be when she sat in the library, her reasonably paying day job, with the ten or so customers that ventured in a day, all of them old and probably with no idea what modern technology was.
The other women in Lena’s year had similar pictures of disgustingly happy-looking lives, so Lena preferred just not being online unless required. She didn’t need more reminders of how much better everyone else was, thanks.
However, no one refused an invite from Chloe Galer. So Lena accepted the invite, joined the group chat, and simply lurked as much as possible as plans were made—though people engaged in conversation with her, of course, and Lena was always quick to answer. Quick to seem inclusive, even if she wasn’t.
Chloe: Hey, Lena! Still got your cheerleading uniform?
Lena: Ofc. Thinking of wearing it for old times’ sake, u?
Chloe: That’d be the sight. Maybe we can get a few of the girls dancing too, what you think?
The ones not pregnant, Lena wanted to add, but didn’t, instead sending a smiley, a good idea! Her stomach had dropped somewhere to her boots when another of the former cheerleaders butted in.
Hailey: Are you still with Brett, Len? You were together when college started.
No.
Not Brett. Brett could go die in a fire. High school jock, varsity player she dated on and off for years. Usually ending in him cheating, Lena throwing a screaming fit, and Brett muttering about crazy women not letting him blow off steam. Last thing Lena knew about Brett was him being in multiple fender benders due to an unfortunate drunk-driving habit. He’d probably totaled about six cars since their last day together.
Lena: Not been in a while. We grew out of each other as u do.
That ended the conversation, because the girls started talking about other things, and Lena only responded to anything directed at her. At least Brett wasn’t in group chat, so that was something.
The months flew past, and next thing Lena knew, she had one week left until the reunion. One week, and still debating whether she should turn up in her old cheerleading uniform, just to swivel some heads. She was perfectly content sitting at her job, eyes glazed over the news article on the reception computer considering all this, when four people walked through the door—none of them people she wanted to see.
Chloe Galer, with her yellow-eyed husband, Tina “Boob-Job” from the reserve cheerleading squad, and fucking Brett. Tina and Brett were draped over one another, and Lena stiffened behind the reception desk, before closing down the news article about people who thought global warming meant there shouldn’t be snow.
Invading her sacred place. Loud and laughing and oblivious, right until they stopped at the front desk by the security scanners.
“Lena Tate!” Chloe said, after a puzzled do I know you frown appeared on her smooth features. “How great to see you here!” Lena accepted her hug and fake kiss, which meant she needed to accept one from Tina as well, and stiff handshakes from the yellow-eyed husband and Brett. Seeing Brett’s smug little expression as he roped a possessive arm around Tina made her want to punch the living daylight out of him.
“Long time no see!” Lena gushed, putting on her best friendly face. “Gosh, I can’t believe it’s been ten years. You haven’t changed a bit.”
“Kind of you to say,” Chloe said, smiling proudly. “This is Rupert Luven. My wonderful husband. I chose not to adopt his last name, because my perfume brand still has Galer. Oh, and Rupert’s great in bed,” she added with a stage whisper, which caused Tina to collapse into hysterics, like she was twelve, not twenty-eight.
Trying not to blush, Lena briefly looked into Rupert’s eerie, yellow eyes, sensing the power wrapped around his strong body, and the obvious “power pose” he struck, feet apart, hands on hips, chin tilted upward. “Werewolf, right?”
“Yes,” he rumbled, completely disinterested.
“Yeah, I heard they have a lot of stamina,” Lena said, causing Chloe’s mouth to curl up further. God, Chloe was so smug. Even back in high school, she was like this. Lapping up praise like a dog. “Nothing compared to a dragon, though,” Lena added casually. “They’re supposed to be the strongest ones out there.”
Chloe’s expression darkened slightly, while Tina managed to separate herself long enough from Brett to say, “Oh, a dragon! You’ve tried a dragon shifter? They’re crazy rare, aren’t they?”
“ ‘Course,” Lena said, wondering wildly why she’d just chosen to lie. It came automatic, unbidden, but it was worth it for the multiple flickers of surprise she caught from them. So she couldn’t help but add, “Quite the upgrade from previous times, you know.”
“Liar,” Brett said, stung as she knew he would be. “You’ve never slept with a dragon shifter in your life. They don’t come to shitholes like Geevor. I’m ‘bout as good as it gets.”<
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“Who says I met him in Geevor?” Lena continued, digging her grave a little deeper. “You think I’ve been working in this library for ten years straight and never went out of town?”
“You have a dragon shifter for a boyfriend?” Now Tina’s mouth hung open in astonishment and awe. “Oh my God. I’d love to see him. Just I’ve never—I’ve never been close to a dragon before.”
“Yeah, I do,” Lena said, inwardly screaming at herself. Stop nailing your own coffin! Just shut up. Shut up now. Instead, she plastered on a dreamy smile, as if imagining the great times she’d had with her non-existent boyfriend.
“I’ve never seen you with him,” Brett growled ominously, hands clenching into fists, his piggy green eyes narrowing. “I always see you walking around alone.”
“Didn’t I just tell you? He’s not in Geevor.” Her brain swirled with a storm of excuses. “He’s busy. And I want my own space to finish off my degree, you know. Make it all my own effort.”
While Chloe’s husband remained blankly unconcerned, most likely not listening to a word any of them were saying, the darkness in Chloe’s face slid off like water. “Oh, that’s great, Lena! Really great! I hope we’ll be seeing him at the reunion, then. Everyone will love it.”
“Not as much as I love him,” Lena said. Shit. Please kill me now. “Now I’m sure you guys didn’t come here just to talk about old times. What’re you looking for?”
Lena followed their request, which were historical books about Geevor itself, since Chloe wanted to add “culture” to the reunion, and when the four left, Lena immediately huddled into a ball behind the reception desk.
I am so royally screwed.
Lena still didn’t know what possessed her to say it.
News traveled fast in small towns like Geevor, and she knew the moment she let the words slip out of her mouth that she was ruined. Yet she still kept her mouth running like it was physically impossible to stop.
Ruined, and stupid, and still way too eager to please, to make it seem like she was successful in her own right. Damnit, she was twenty-eight now, not eighteen. No way could she hold a lie like that for longer than the week it would take for the school reunion to make front page local news.
Meanwhile, there was Lena with her small-town day job working in the only library with books over a century old in places, sweating over her online courses and trying to get qualified for Social Media Marketing, and living alone in her house with a pet cat called Mr. Scruffle. No dragon lovers involved. No out-of-this-world, mind-blowing sex.
Not when you had limited dating options and never left the area. Not when half the Tinder dates didn’t show up, and the other half wanted hookups.
What am I going to do? Lena stared at the blue carpeted floor in horror, even as her legs began to cramp.
Not turn up, probably. But then it’d be obvious she was lying. Turning up without her so-called dragon man as well wouldn’t wash, no matter how brilliant an excuse she produced. Maybe his father died and he had to go to the funeral, or his flight was delayed, or he’s in the hospital in a coma or something.
She rocked back and forth on her feet, a faint whine escaping her throat. Too late to take back her words. She’d have to pay the consequences of her own actions.
Pay…
Lena’s eyes snapped up to the computer, displaying its generic green field and blue background.
Maybe there was a solution for her predicament after all.
Chapter Two – Oskar
Another successful date carried out. Another week doing nothing else but rush around family affairs, pretending he cared when really, he was looking for his next escape.
Who’s next? He sat in front of his office flatscreen monitor, glancing briefly to the darkening skies outside, and the skyscrapers illuminating his vision like beautiful, gold-speckled pillars. He liked nighttime best for this reason—to see the world come alive with light to beat back the darkness.
His ancestors certainly approved of it, anyway. Dragons and fire mixed well together—and his ancestors had been the ones to bring humanity out of the darkness.
Back on the screen, he scrolled through Date-Monsters, checking his profile to see if he had any matches. About a dozen different women all had their profiles on display, each with their own specific requirements about what they wanted from a shifter. Date-Monsters was Oskar’s father’s side company, wholly dedicated to high-end shifters and high-end women and men. Though they did have fetish areas, and sections for poorer clients to make requests, too. Simple site, really. Expose your soul, your desires, and wait to see if the site matched you with someone else. If it did, and both of you agreed to meet, then arrangements were made through a third party who retained a small percentage of the profits.
Oskar himself had started using Date-Monsters as a way to blow off steam, being too busy for a normal relationship, and preferring the site as people needed to provide their medical details and IDs. His brothers didn’t use it, as far as he was aware, but it was good promotion all the same to have family of the founders invested in Date-Monsters. Boosted its prestige. And since he himself received revenue from it on top of his regular job, he never had to worry for money. Stock shares were through the roof, and the site only seemed to gain popularity over time.
Dragons did, after all, like hoarding their treasures. Oskar’s family was no exception. The Wainwrights had millions in assets like paintings, classical instruments, furniture, and ancient artefacts. A painting of Dawn Rise hung on the wall opposite Oskar, drawn by a famous dragon shifter about sixty years ago, valued at about three hundred thousand now. Nothing too expensive. He knew his father was trying to buy an authentic Van Gogh for his private collection.
Idly thumbing through each woman matching with his profile, he didn’t feel a particular tug to any of them. One was as good as the other.
His father chose to walk in at that moment unannounced, smiling in that self-satisfied way he had. His father loved interrupting and had at least twice caught him with a woman in an undue state of dress. What would it be for this time? A successful business proposal? Yet another woman that he thinks can snare me? “Son,” Isaac Wainwright said, and Oskar smiled languidly back at his father, clicking away the date page.
“Yes, Father?”
“I’ve got the perfect one for you this time.” Isaac beckoned fiercely to the open door, and a woman sidled in. Another woman it was. Oskar barely repressed the sigh bubbling on his lips. “She’s a stunner, as you see. Family’s rich. Great tits,” his father said, and again, Isaac sat there with a blank expression. His father liked listing out the women as if they were statistics on a website, only displaying physical attributes and social worth. Brain was the least sought after, but his father hadn’t seemed to clock that yet.
The woman, despite being dressed to attract, with a tight dress accentuating her curves, obviously didn’t like being described as if she were some stock horse, and Oskar took minor pity upon her.
“Sorry, my father’s been trying to get me with someone for some time. He’s lost most of the charm along the way.”
“That’s alright,” the woman said in a rich voice, red lips curving, blue eyes sparkling. Attractive, for sure. “He’s not so bad.”
“I’ll leave you two alone, shall I?” Isaac said, grinning, but Oskar held up a palm.
“Don’t bother, Father. I’ve told you once and I’ll tell you again. Not interested. No offense,” he added to the woman, who indeed seemed to be coloring in offense. “I keep reminding him every week I don’t want him looking for anyone. I’m sorry if he led you on with any notions…”
The woman drew herself to her full height, which was very high, exaggerated by her killer heels. Honestly, Oskar had no idea how women managed to walk in things like that and not break their ankles. “Are you serious?”
“Deadly,” Oskar said.
“You’d waste my time?”
“Blame my father.”
“Now, now,”
Isaac said, appearing rather crestfallen. He rubbed awkwardly at his graying hair, where a bald patch formed on the top of his scalp. “Son, you have to settle down eventually. It doesn’t look good if you’re a bachelor in your thirties…”
“There’s no shame in it,” Oskar shot back, folding his arms. A little puff of smoke left his nostrils, and he took some deep breaths to control his rising irritation. “What I do with my life is my decision to make. And if I want one-night stands with women on Date-Monsters, then that’s what I’ll have.”
“You can have anyone, son,” Isaac said rather desperately. “Anyone. Like this woman here!”
“What’s her name, Father?”
Isaac frowned. “Um… Emma… Watson?”
“That’s the actress,” Emma-not-Watson said, before throwing up her hands in disgust. “Whatever. I’m out.”
“Father, you didn’t think to write her name on your hand or in your phone? You’re getting forgetful in your old age.”
His father let out a rather sad sigh. “I’ll find someone for you one day. I’ll have more grandchildren. You wait and see.”
Oskar merely smiled thinly in amusement, hiding the sudden flash of panic within. Right. Grandchildren. Another family thing he had to deal with at some point. But not now. He could have a few more years of mindless enjoyment before settling down. Everyone nowadays settled later into their careers, and besides, Garren and Timothy had it sorted in the stellar son department. He only really spoke to his older siblings at meetings and Christmas dinners, and quick Happy Birthday texts. They all had their own lives to deal with.
Pulling up the site once his father had left, he ignored his recommended matches, instead scouring the Dragon section of the site. There was a subsection for every type of shifter out there, including people with fetishes, people looking for dates, dragons to go to prom with, dragons even to pretend to be husbands and wives with… something for everybody.