Big Bear Mountain - The Complete Series (31 page)

D
eclan’s hands shook with excitement as he
fumbled to unlock the front door to the brownstone. He’d been too busy recently
to spend time with his treasure, but now, it was not only a necessity, but also
a welcoming and comforting distraction from all that had happened recently.
After all, it wasn’t every day that a dragon got to pursue his mate and the
more challenging the pursuit, the stronger the bond that would form, in time.

While it was true that the Elders of the
dragon clan took charge of pairing suitable mates, the ways of the founding
clan were still tightly woven within the DNA of the modern day dragons.
Centuries ago, dragon males would recognize their true mate by sight and scent
soon after they came of age. Humans learned of this unique ability in ancient
times and coined the phrase ‘love at first sight’ to describe the powerful
magic that brought dragons together in a union that could never be broken.

Declan still believed in the old ways and
he knew, beyond any doubt, that Olivia was his perfect mate and that they were
destined to be together. He had known this from the first moment he saw her,
but he’d underestimated the type of treasure he’d have to give her before she
would agree to the bonding ritual. Clearly, the gift of life, her life, wasn’t
enough. She wanted more and he was determined to solve the puzzle.

The wise advice he’d heard from Mack as
they worked out got him thinking. Of course! Why hadn’t he thought of it
before? What girl doesn’t like the gift of jewelry? He’d mistakenly assumed
that only dragons loved the sparkle of gold and precious stones. Treasure! That
was the answer to his challenge. If he shared his treasure with her, like his
ancestors had done during their bonding rituals, she would respond and give
herself to him and become not only his mate but also a custodian of his
treasure.

I’m an A Grade fucking genius!
He thought proudly as he made his way to the vault doors beneath
the stairs, with a huge grin on his face.

Access to the treasure vault could only be
granted by the oversize doors when he was in his dragon form. Shifted to human
form, his dragon powers ceased to be recognized by the magic controlling the
vault. Dragons valued and protected their treasure diligently and only ever
shared it with their mates. To everyone else, it was a closely guarded and well
protected secret.

Olivia’s treasure was her beauty and her
pure heart. Declan knew that he would have to offer her much before he could
expect such a rare and precious treasure as her to give herself to him and
share with him, his shiny, more tangible treasures. Now was the time to really
go for it, as Mack, in his wisdom, had suggested. Honesty and jewelry. That was
the key to a woman’s heart and if anyone would know, Mack would. He was all
human, after all and had lived in the human world all his life.

For a fleeting moment, Declan wondered
about Mack’s mate. The funny thing was — he’d never once mentioned her. That
small detail, though, was quickly forgotten as Declan shifted into his dragon
and spread his enormous, leathery wings before the entrance to the vault. At
once, with a resounding, heavy click, the doors unlocked. The loud resonance of
the echo that followed hinted strongly that there was more beyond the doors
than a cupboard under the stairs. Much, much more.

M
aybe it was the crushing tiredness or the
dull ache in her legs or the throbbing headache from lack of sleep, but it took
a few moments for Olivia to realize that the footsteps she was now hearing had
been following her for a few minutes as she turned down a back alley to take a
shortcut home.

No, not again. Really?

“Who’s there?” she barked in the most
unfriendly tone she could as she turned to face the direction the footsteps
were coming from.

“Is that any way to talk to your
bodyguard?” a familiar voice answered.

A figure in a nondescript hoodie stepped
out of the darkness and walked toward her with an efficiency and sleekness of
movement usually only seen in predatory animals. He stopped in a pool of light
directly in front of her.

Declan?

 “Go away,” she snapped. “I’m not in the
mood to deal with you right now. Or ever.”

“I’ve got something for you. Something
you’re going to like, I promise.”

“I don’t want anything from you. There’s
something funny about you and I know trouble when I see it. And you’re trouble
with a capital ‘T’.”

“I’m not who you think I am,” Declan
countered.

“So, now you’re
not
Batman?”

Olivia snorted, perhaps a little louder
than necessary to make her point.

“Can we forget about Batman? Just for one
minute? I’m trying to explain, if you’ll give me half a chance.”

“I gave you a chance and it got all weird.
Everything has been weird since you came to the diner that night. A gang of
armed muggers run off because one unarmed, although athletically built, guy
shows up.” She held up a finger. “Then, you start doing some kind of
spontaneous skin regeneration thing that we both know isn’t possible, unless
you’re the Terminator.” She held up a second finger. “And then your eyes did
some weird shit like one of those South American lizard things —”

“Iguana,” Declan interjected.

“What-the-fuck-ever.” Olivia rolled her
eyes as she extended a third finger. “And if that isn’t enough like an episode
of Fringe, I cut myself at work and bled like a stuck pig, but here’s the
kicker, the cut healed in a couple of minutes.” A fourth finger was raised and
held in front of Declan’s face as if it might divine some explanation from him.

“I can explain. Really. But first, I need
to give you something,” he said as he stepped directly in front of her and
reached into his pocket.

“I already told you, I don’t want anything
from you. Wait … yes I do … I want you to leave me alone. I don’t need you and
I sure as hell don’t want you hanging around. Stay away from me and stay away
from the diner.” She turned and continued walking toward her apartment.

She didn’t hear him moving away. In fact,
she heard nothing at all. And then, suddenly, there he was. Standing further
down the alley with a big cocky smile on his smug face and leaning against a
graffiti painted wall, like he’d been there all along.

“If you’re trying to impress me, you’re
doing a lousy job. The weirder things get with you, the less I want to have to
do with you. Taking some smart-ass shortcut and cutting me off really isn’t
that
impressive, anyway.” She made a snorting sound and added, “anyway, what are
you, in high school or something?”

Pushing himself away from the wall as she
approached, he held out his hand and from it, cascaded an array of magnificent
and brilliantly sparkling diamonds, rubies and emeralds. It looked like part of
a royal collection of crown jewels and even in the dark ally, their brilliance
and rarity was unmistakable.

For the first time, a witty one liner
eluded Olivia. She was officially speechless.

“T
his is what I wanted to give you,” he said
and he leaned into her and clasped the stunning necklace behind her neck before
standing back to admire how well it suited her.

“I don’t understand?” Olivia shook her
head.

“This has been in my family for hundreds of
years. It’s a gift. It used to belong to a princess, now it still does.”

“I can’t …” Her eyes were transfixed on the
sparkling stones, but she couldn’t fail to notice that the workmanship left a
lot to be desired. Then the truth finally dawned on her. The piece really was
hundreds of years old. It belonged to a time when craftsmen didn’t have modern
technology to make such jewelry.
He might actually be telling the truth
.

“I don’t know how this works, but I got
some help from a friend. He told me that if I tell you everything right up
front and give you a nice gift, you might listen to me. So, here I am.”

“I’m listening,” she said as she cradled
the weighty jewels in her fingers, still trying to convince herself that they
couldn’t possibly be real.

Here we go …

“Alright,” he began and held up one finger,
“firstly, I’m a dragon shifter. You’ve only seen me in my human form, well …
apart from the eye thing. Anyway, I shifted into my dragon form to chase off
those guys who were robbing you —”

“Do you really think I’m that stupid?” She
fixed a glare on his one raised finger, practically daring him to lift another.

“No, wait, Mack said that if I —”

Olivia raised her hand to stop him
mid-sentence.

“I work in a diner. I can’t go back to work
in banking because of my credit record, so waiting on tables is all I can do
right now. But, that doesn’t mean I’m stupid. Do you really think I was going
to believe I could be anyone’s
princess
or that you’re some kind of
dragon
?”

Mack said tell her everything, right up
front. Don’t hold anything back, he said.

As she fixed an icy stare directly into his
emerald eyes, he blinked slowly, revealing glowing red eyes, like she’d seen
before, only this time, they didn’t change back. They grew brighter and more
vivid, taking on an almost reptilian look as the pupils turned into vertical
slits.

Declan completed his shift quickly and
without further explanation. After all, when you’re about to turn into a twelve
foot tall dragon, there’s really not much to say.

Looking down at his mate, Declan’s dragon
sat as demurely as a huge, winged dragon can, trying not to frighten her. She
was everything he had ever dreamed of. But, if he frightened her now, he knew
he’d never have another opportunity to make it right and he’d live the rest of
his life as a solitary beast, exiled from his clan.

W
ith her mouth agape, Olivia’s fingers
slipped from the heavy gold, jewel laden necklace around her neck, as her hands
fell to her sides. She couldn’t move. All she could do was stare silently at
the creature before her. Strangely, though, she wasn’t afraid. Something within
her, something she didn’t understand, made her feel safe. There was no threat. No
danger. Quite the opposite. This beast was her protector and somehow, she just
knew it would always protect her. No matter what.

Where the rational part of her brain should
have been in fear for her life, another part of her brain shoved those thoughts
into an unused corner of her mind and left them there to gather dust as she
admired the beauty and elegance of the mythical creature before her.

“You’re not afraid?”

She could hear the voice — in her head. But
the dragon’s lips didn’t move. Then again, she realized, that was the least of
the things wrong with this picture. Not only didn’t dragons exist, even if they
did, they couldn’t speak!

“We do exist. And we can speak, but not
like you do. We connect with your mind to communicate. Breathing fire and having
vocal cords are mutually exclusive.”

“Breathing fire …”

The dragon’s eyes glowed fiercely as it
opened its mouth, revealing rows of fearsomely sharp teeth, illuminated by a
steady orange glow building in intensity from deep within the dragon’s throat.

With a bellow, a blast of flames roared
from the dragon’s mouth, shooting twenty feet in the air, radiating a near
blistering heat through the small alley.

For a moment, the fireball hung in the air,
allowing Olivia to clearly see the dragon fully illuminated. He was a thing of
beauty. The leathery hide glistened with a color somewhere between jet black
and a bottle green. Although it looked soft, there was no doubt as to its
strength and resilience from the way it undulated as the powerful muscles
beneath the hide flexed and rippled.

Sensing that Olivia was assessing him, the
dragon extended his bat-like wings as much as the narrow alley would allow,
which was sufficient to be both dominating and impressive.

“Oh-my-god!” Was all Olivia could say as
the creature towered over her with its wings spread and the remnants of a
dragon fireball diminishing overhead. What else was there to say, really?

“So, now do you believe me?”
The dragon voice in her head asked.

Olivia nodded slowly.

“Dragon blood has a magical healing
property. That’s how I’m able to heal, even in human form. That’s how I healed
your ear after the bullet tore it to pieces — I used my blood. I gave you my
blood.”

Olivia looked at her finger. “And that’s
how my finger healed, after I cut it?”

“Yes. You now have dragon blood in you,
but it’s a double edged sword.”

“What does that even mean?” Olivia narrowed
her eyes as she waited for him to make sense of that.

“It means that if the dragon hunters,
who have hunted dragons for centuries, learn of your gift, you will become one
of the hunted, too. Like me.”

“Dragon hunters? Really?

“In medieval times, myths of dragons
being the fearsome enemy of man were spread by dragon hunters who sought the
magic properties of their blood. It’s what you humans call the elixir of life.
Or the Philosopher’s Stone. You have enough to heal you, but not enough to give
you immortality. Still, you have enough to make you valuable to them.”

“I think my head is ready to explode.
Priceless jewels, dragon shifters, fire breathing dragons, no less and now
magic dragon blood and dragon hunters …”

Declan stood before her, once more, having
shifted to his human form while Olivia proceeded to list the events of the
evening in short order.

“Is this better? Can we talk now or do you
still not want to hear anything my
lying ass has to say
?” Declan smiled
and winked. As he did so, his winking eye burned brightly red for a moment,
before returning to the same hypnotic emerald as the other one.