Burning for the Dragon: BBW Dragon Shifter Paranormal Romance (Fated Hearts Club Book 1) (7 page)

“Heir,” she hissed, her eyes blazing with inner fire.
“You’re not the king yet. Will you ever be, if they see her? She’s not one of
us. Will they accept her or will they kill you both to spare our kind your
weakness?”

Some of the anger sapped from his muscles. He released
Alexa’s throat. Had that been the message she was surely sent to give him?
Choose wisely, or they would both die? It was an old tradition and used to cull
weakness from the dragons. So few still lived that even the ancients of his
people didn’t remember it being used. He wanted to believe it was just Alexa
trying to mess with his mind and force him to choose her.

His parents certainly wouldn’t object to the match. She was
a full dragon shifter, after all. She’d been raised at court. She knew how to
fight in both dragon and human shape. On paper, she was a good fit to be
Consort to the Dragon King.

But she wasn’t Penelope. He would kill anyone who threatened
her.

It was the questioning opportunity Alexa sought. She stroked
his chest. “You were made for ruling, Luca. The power is almost in your hands.
Don’t blow it on some human girl.”

He shook his head. “No. Leo was the one made to rule. I
wasn’t born for it.”

“That doesn’t matter now. Don’t you see? The power is yours
for the taking. What good is denial?”

The heart of her words was correct and he hated to agree
with her. He hadn’t been born to rule, but that wasn’t anything he could rely
on now. His brother was dead and he was next in line for the throne.

Her hand stroked down his chest again and her fingers
trailed over the waistband of his pants. “We could be great together…”

He snatched her hand away in a punishing grip. The bones of
her wrist crushed together, but he twisted and squeezed until she sank to her
knees.

Again, the power of his dragon sank into his human form. His
shoulders expanded with the gathering of his shift and his eyes darkened until
all the color left them. His face elongated to fit many sharper teeth in his
mouth.

He held her before him and let her see the anger of her
future king. She had invaded his lair, she had driven away his mate, and now
she tried to seduce him. She was nothing. He only let the blood stay in her
veins because she was a dragon and too few still lived.

“Leave.”

He unleashed her wrist and shoved her away from him. The
scrambling sounds of her hasty retreat pleased both dragon and human.

Penelope thought of going straight to Vera’s. She would
curse the ground Luca walked on and the club that allowed him to be a cheat,
have a good cry, and end the night in a wallow of cookies and ice cream.

Then she thought of the pity that would show on her friend’s
face that she’d fallen for the wrong sort of guy again. There would be anger
and indignation that someone could play with her emotions. Again. It’d be
followed by the inevitable speech about how it’ll be better next time.

Next time. She didn’t want next time. She had been so sure
she was done with love, and Luca dared to make her hope for something real.
Even a man in a trillion could be a scumbag.

She couldn’t handle it. She needed to be alone. So she told
the cab driver to take her home. Home, to the dingy studio apartment she could
barely afford on wages she earned from a job she didn’t care about. All because
she’d put her trust in the wrong sort of person on the last flirtation with
love.

She’d been so stupid. She and Luca knew nothing about one
another. He certainly didn’t mention anything about that woman. Not that there
had been any time between dinner and the sheets, but that proved her point. He
was practically a stranger.

A stranger she desperately wanted to get to know. No,
scratch that. She used to desperately want to know everything about him, from
his favorite flavor of ice cream to the types of books he liked to read in his
free time. Now, she wanted nothing to do with him.

Because if she wanted him, mind and body, it meant she still
cared. She wouldn’t care about a no good, two timing, devil of a man. Dragon.
Whatever
.

It took the cab driver two attempts to get her attention
before Penelope realized they’d parked in front of her building. She handed him
enough bills to cover her fare and a tip, then fled up the rickety stairs to
her floor.

It took a few tries to fit her key in the lock. Hot tears
threatened to spill down her cheeks. She didn’t want to cry in public. She
didn’t want to be that girl. But she was so close to the privacy of her four
walls. Finally, she managed to get the lock in the keyhole, and pushed into the
door with her shoulder.

Her hands shook as she stripped out of Luca’s shirt and
threw it in the garbage. His delicious, smoky scent still clung to the fabric.
She couldn’t keep that around, not even long enough to make it to the
laundromat. She didn’t want to look at it and imagine how it looked hugging
Luca’s arm and chest. Into the garbage it went, just like all her
relationships.

A shower was next on her list. Long and hot enough to eat
into her utility budget, but that was something to worry about later. After she
had time to properly feel sorry for herself under the scalding flow of water.
Her tears flowed then, hot and silent. The walls were too thin for the ugly
crying she wanted to unleash.

She’d been betrayed again. As much as she wanted to place
the blame firmly on the others, a part of her doubted herself. She was always
the one being hurt. She fell too hard and too easily, and it opened her up for
a world of pain. Even the hot water couldn’t rinse away the loathing she
allowed herself to feel.

After the shower, Penelope dressed in her comfiest pajamas
and ordered a large pizza with piles of toppings. She didn’t care if it was only
mid-morning. She didn’t plan to leave the apartment for the rest of the day.
She’d spend the rest of the day staring blankly at the television as she binged
episodes of programs she couldn’t even recall.

She roused herself at the sound of a knock on her door.
Expecting the pizza delivery, she was shocked to silence when she opened the
door to find Alexa on the other side. Her mouth dropped open to gape openly at
the taller woman.

“Well, aren’t you going to invite me into your...home?”

“How did you find me?” Penelope managed to whisper.

“Oh, please. You weren’t difficult to follow from your
workplace to this dump. Luca may have been happy to wait for your date, but I
had to prepare for any threat that could come between us.” She pushed Penelope
aside and walked into the apartment.

Penelope didn’t know whether to run down the stairs and cry
for help. Not that she’d get very far. The neighborhood was dangerous, and she
was as likely to be harmed on the street looking for help as in the same room
with Luca’s stalker girlfriend.

She wanted to stick up for herself. Alexa toyed with a
necklace around her neck as she took a quick tour of the one-room studio,
taking in the bed that served as her couch and breakup nest, the tiny kitchen,
even poking her head into the bathroom.

Penelope’s eyes slid to the table she used to hold her
purse. A necklace she meant to return to Vera was on the surface. Silver.
Shifters didn’t like silver, Luca said. She edged closer to the table, but
Alexa pinned her to the spot with a sharp stare.

“I honestly don’t know how you live like this. I certainly
can’t stand to be here longer than necessary. So, I guess you’re coming with
me.”

“I will not.”

Alexa smiled brightly and revealed a mouth full of sharp
teeth. Adrenaline shot through Penelope’s veins and she made a quick leap for
the silver necklace. She screamed wildly and pressed it into Alexa’s face, but
it didn’t do much more than anger the woman.

She hissed and bat Penelope easily out of the way. She
landed on the floor in a heap. Penelope shivered when Alexa turned murderous
eyes on her. A red line like a burn remained on her face where the silver had
met skin.

“I tried to be reasonable,” Alexa said. “Remember that when
you’re howling as I flay the flesh from your bones. It didn’t have to be this
way.”

Her tone chilled Penelope to the bone.

***

Luca waited until he was sure Alexa had left before yanking
open the door hidden away in his home office and taking the staircase to the
roof. He couldn’t wait for the car to come for him. He wanted to be at
Penelope’s apartment when she arrived. He needed a chance to explain everything
to her. The day was cloudy enough to conceal him in his other shape, should any
from below look skyward.

Undressing, he let his shift rip through him instantly.
There was no in between stage like other shifters, where he could feel his
bones and body changing shape. He was simply human, and then dragon.

Large wings the color of dried blood clung to his side. His
tail, ridged with sharp spikes made for smacking into enemies in flight,
flicked in agitation. Long claws clacked against the hard concrete of the
rooftop. The dragon was impatient to go after their mate. He shook the rain
from his eyes, the motion shivering down his long neck and through the bulk of his
body.

He forced the dragon to hook a claw around the sack that
would contain his clothes. He doubted she would be pleased if he showed up
naked. Then his wings unfurled and beat downward and the same time his powerful
hind legs launched his body into the air. Higher and higher, his wings carried
him into the cover of dark clouds.

Just a few coasted beats later, and the dragon dipped a wing
to start a slow spiral downward. Penelope’s building was nearing. Faceted black
eyes judged the distance and didn’t betray the barely concealed anguish and
fury that warmed him from the inside. He stroked wings to make the landing. A
sharp claw brushed against the roof of the building, then Luca shifted back.
Dragon became man.

A naked man. He hastily dressed in the pack he forced the
dragon to carry. The rain started to really pour, and he was soaked by the time
he busted the lock and chain holding the access door shut.

It was a surprise to check each of the building’s floors and
not catch a whiff of Penelope’s scent. Her lair was there. Anywhere she
regularly spent time would hold her scent. He sought after her spicy cinnamon
flavor, urged it to hit his nose so he could follow it to her door. But nothing
came to him but desperation.

One of the lower floors gave him a brief trail. It was
nothing close to the strength of what his lair would smell like, but he took
the chance and followed the wisp of a trail to a door. Only a number was nailed
on.

He knocked. He didn’t know exactly what he would say, but he
would demand she listen to him. He had done nothing wrong. Alexa was an old
flame and an uninvited intruder. Surely Penelope would see the truth of it.

He didn’t want to think about what happened if she still
refused him.

“Yes?”

It wasn’t Penelope that spoke through the door. The voice
was from the night before. Her friend?

“Is Penelope in there?”

“No. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave right
now.”

“I just want to talk to her.” He braced his hands against
the doorframe. It’d be simple enough to beat down the wood. But Penelope wasn’t
there. The scent was old and faint.

“I don’t know how you got in here without buzzing, but I’m
going to call security and then the police.” The voice faded into the
apartment, and he heard the muffled sounds of a phone ringing. “Yes, there’s
someone at my door that shouldn’t be in the building.”

Luca wasn’t proud. He fled back upstairs and into the air.
He couldn’t find Penelope if he was in custody.

He used thermals to circle over the city. The storm gathered
around him, but he didn’t leave the clouds. The deafening thunder in his ears
and blinding lightning in his eyes fit his mood.

He scanned the city below. There were too many scents and
too many tiny ants to pick out one person. The one contact he had for her was
wrong. She’d vanished.

He hadn’t felt real despair when she disappeared into the
crowd after the Fated Hearts Club had been evacuated. He still had a chance of
finding her and making her his mate. Now, though… Now she’d disappeared again
and her heart was filled with hatred of him.

He was a powerful man and dragon. Defeat didn’t come easily
to him. Anger, however, did. He’d been forced to find a mate. He’d been forced
to take his brother’s place as the heir to the throne. Now he was being forced
away from the woman he wanted to share his life.

He thought of calling in Franklin and having him hack the
Fated Hearts Club site again. Surely there was payment information stored on
their computers. Payments needed billing. Did the potential mates need to pay
for entry, or was that only the shifters looking for their future?

He shot fire into the air in frustration. Any eyes looking
from below would see odd lightning. Alexa would recognize it for what it was.
He didn’t bother hiding his bellows of rage or bursts of flame. Let Alexa come
and start a fight. He itched to let off the burning agony in his veins. She’d
caused it and she could pay the price.

He knew his lair had been invaded again as soon as his feet
landed on the roof. The scent was more than just his own, and the door was left
ajar. Alexa’s scent, though faint, lingered all around. Luca’s growl rippled
from his chest and fangs hung over his lips.

A ribbon was tied to the handle when he pulled open the
door. A piece of parchment was attached. His name was written in Alexa’s
handwriting. He unrolled it and read it. Then read it again. His dragon was
ready to spring back into the air and do battle. Rending flesh with claws and
fire, that’s what the beast wanted and Luca was more than happy to agree.

She’s as safe as Leo before the end.

Come to us.

The highest mountain is no longer yours.

The letter wasn’t signed, but a smear of red ran under the
last line. It smelled of cinnamon and the copper of blood. Penelope.

Tearing Alexa apart sounded like a good plan with every passing
second he was denied being near Penelope. Screw keeping her alive for the good
of the dragon population. She needed to die for what she’d done.