Dragons Don't Love (4 page)

Later, though. Now it’s time to
deflower my bride.

I enter the tower at mid-level and
unbar the door that leads to the inner sanctum. My nose immediately
picks up a scent that causes my anger to flare. Acasia has been
here. I’m sure she searched for Ashrac, though for some reason, I
didn’t sense when she crossed into my realm. I only sense my nephew
every so often because he’s so small and his magic undeveloped. I’m
staring up at the top parapet when it occurs to me to look
down.

Her door is open. I scream as I charge
down the stairs. I will kill her. Not my bride but Acasia. She
wouldn’t dare. I burst into the room to find it empty. Fire leaves
my human throat and the bedding goes up in flames. My bride will
pay dearly for running from me, and I will have revenge on
Acasia.

I leave the room, leap to the sky, and
shred my pants without thought. A jolt of electricity curls inside
me as Acasia passes through my realm and into Bastian’s. She will
beat me to her castle. I don’t care, though. The bride is mine and
Acasia has no right to her.

I whip through the sky—my wings
beating to the pulse of my anger. I surge through the realm into
Bastian’s territory and begin yelling his name. “Bastian, I will
kill your mate for this. Return my bride.” He doesn’t answer, which
doesn’t surprise me. The love-sick coward. Why is he so special
that his mate turns into a dragon? Why not Maleah, whom I loved
with my entire being?

I finally see Bastian’s great tower
sticking out of the clouds and put on an additional burst of speed.
They will rue the day they messed with Laryn, the mightiest dragon
to ever live. Bastian’s red tail swoops out of a cloud and hits me
upside the head. I shake my jaw and turn to seek the fucker who has
disappeared into the clouds again.

“
Calm down, Laryn,” he
whispers into my mind.

“
Return my bride, you ugly,
red-spawned demon from hell,” I yell back with a bellow that should
have blown away his castle. His tail comes out and wallops my back
legs. My front talons strike through the cloud to the side of me
and I feel the satisfying grind of nails against armored
scales.

A well-placed punch to my jaw is my
reward. I shake my great head, spin, and charge through another
cloud only to find him gone.

“
Let me know when you tire
so we can land and discuss this like mature men.”

“
That’s why your mate has
you so pussy-whipped it’s laughable. We are dragon and not men at
all. I will kill you, Bastian, along with Acasia.”

His strike comes from above this time
and his talons sink deep into the unprotected juncture where my
wings meet my back. He furls in his wings and takes us both toward
the ground. He doesn’t release me as we crash and roll. Our wings
tie up together as we go head over tail. Bastian’s giant jaw
captures my throat before I can stop him. The pressure grinds
against my windpipe.

“
You will never threaten my
mate again, Laryn,” Bastian grounds out no longer able to control
his temper.

“
She stole my bride” I snap.
His hold doesn’t relent.

“
And you stole mine
first.”

I’d spew fire if I could get it past
Bastian’s grip on my throat. “So this is revenge for something I
did twenty-five years ago?” His teeth press down just a bit harder
and I continue. “I have done everything so you will grant me
forgiveness. It does no good because you can’t forgive yourself.
You did not guard your greatest treasure close enough. You failed
her, Bastian. I only took advantage of an incompetent
dragon.”

Ashrac’s quiet voice enters my head.
“You would harm my mother, Uncle Laryn?”

Oh, hell.

“
Release me, Bastian,
please.” Ever so slowly, Bastian’s jaws open. I shift. It’s the
only way I can truly control the fury eating at my insides. Ashrac
is standing about twenty feet away. I beckon with my hands. “Come
here, Ash.”

He looks uncertain and it wounds me
deeply. “I would never harm your mother or you.” I glance up at
Bastian. “Or your father.”

Ashrac shifts to human and leaps so
fast I almost don’t catch him. I wrap my arms tight around his
small body and heft him up. “I love you, Uncle Laryn,” he says as
he squeezes me tight. “Your bride is afraid of you and I asked
Mother if we could keep her. I didn’t mean to make you angry, Uncle
Laryn.”

I glance over his shoulder to his
father who stands by and watches me hug his son. It’s the first
time Bastian has willingly allowed me to touch him.

Bastian shakes his head in seeming
irritation. “We’ve always known where he is when he visits you,
Laryn. I forgave you a long time ago, but you know how stubborn I
am. I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.”

Guilt, relief, and sadness wash over
me. Twenty-five years wasted because of my foolishness. I stole
Bastian’s bride and he has a right to hate me. “My bride,” is all I
can manage as I hold tight to my nephew and try to keep tears at
bay.

“
I will speak with Acasia
and we will bring your bride back to you.”

“
She is very beautiful,
Uncle Laryn.”

I set him down. “Yes, she is. She
belongs with me, Ash. You need to convince your mother of
that.”

He stares at me with his serious dark
eyes flashing red. “Do you promise not to frighten her again,
uncle?”

The last bit of fight leaves me and I
place my hand over my heart. “I promise, Ash.”

He turns and runs. His dragon form
replaces the boy as he shoots skyward. “I will tell her she must
return to you, Uncle Laryn. She will be so happy that you will be
nice, I know she will.”

“
You’ve promised him,
Laryn.”

I turn and meet Bastian’s gaze. “I
have and I will keep my promise, or at least try. The pint-sized,
ball-of-nothing female attacked me with a sword at the claiming
ceremony.”

Bastian, still in dragon form, rears
his head back and blows fire with his laughter.

I can’t help myself, wimp that I’ve
become in the last few minutes. I wait until his laughter subsides
before saying, “Am I truly forgiven, Bastian?”

His goliath head nods once. “Yes, my
friend. I will invite Sarn and Tahr over for cards and they will
forgive you too.”

Now I feel apprehension. “I don’t
trust Sarn.”

“
And we shouldn’t. We both
know the anguish over a lost bride. I fear he loved Calista more
than his previous brides. Her death has not been easy on
him.”

I shift and launch myself into the
sky. “Hurry and return my bride, Bastian. I would hate to rekindle
our feud on the day it’s settled.” I fly away and leave my new
bride behind. It’s killing me. Everything inside me pushes for me
to turn around and kill everything in my path. Bastian knows this.
He will return her quickly. I trust him.

Chapter Nine

Roxanne

“
And he fought my father,
and they fell from the sky, and they made the ground thunder, and
they…”

“
That’s enough, Ashrac,”
Acasia ruffles his hair and gives his shoulder a squeeze. “Roxanne
doesn’t know our ways and you frighten her with talk of
fighting.”

Frighten? Who me? The last thing I’m
afraid of is two warring dragons. If I’m lucky, neither will walk
away unscathed. Acasia and Ashrac glance my way and I’m not sure of
the response I should give. No response gets me past the
awkwardness of the moment. Acasia is now in human form and I have
so many questions.

“
We must return her, Mother.
Uncle Laryn says he will not scare her again. She is his bride and
he is quite angry that she left him.”

Wow. Dragon children are
very forgetful. “
May we keep her, Mother?
May we please? She is the finest treasure,
” were his exact words.

“
I will not return to that
bully,” I utter with angry conviction.

“
Ash, go find your father so
Roxanne and I may speak privately.” She pats his bottom and pushes
him slightly forward. “Go on now.”

The child turns to me right before he
exits the room. “He says you’re beautiful and I think so too.”
Ashrac turns and runs out yelling at the top of his lungs, “Father,
Father. Mother says you must entertain me so she can talk bride
stuff to the bride.”

I bite my lip to control a
smile.

Acasia doesn’t bother. “He puts words
into my mouth all the time. He’s a complete rascal with no shame
whatsoever.”

“
He’s precious.”

“
And that too. Please have a
seat, Roxanne. There is much we must speak of.”

I cross to two large chairs and take
the farthest one. Acasia takes the other. “I’m not going to like
what you say, am I?”

Acasia’s smile disappears.
“It’s more of a story about dragons. Laryn should tell you, but I
fear he is quite stubborn and holds to the old ways.”

My anger at the stupid dragon is at a
low simmer. “It won’t change my mind. If I return, I will kill him
or die trying.”

It’s an hour later and I can’t stop
wiping tears from my eyes as Acasia finishes her story, “...again
and again they must find room in their heart to love once more
knowing it’s for but a blink of their existence.”  

I can no longer stay seated. I pace
the confines of the room in my distress. “You mean they love their
brides even when the bride grows old? Then when she dies they mourn
until their turn to claim a new bride?” Acasia’s gaze stays on me,
red flashes of light shining in her eyes every time I look at
her.

“
Yes. I am the first female
dragon in thousands of years. To this day Bastian and I do not know
what made our union special.”

I stop and turn to face her. “Why must
they put such fright into the village and make the people go
through the entire claiming ceremony? It makes absolutely no
sense.”

“
It’s Hera’s curse. It
instinctually guides the dragons. That’s how they know their true
bride and can separate her from the ones offered.”

My anger gets the best of me and my
voice hardens. “Why have you not returned to the village and told
this story? You owe it to those women who live in fear their entire
lives.”

Acasia immediately looks sad. “I do
owe it to them, but I can’t. Neither I nor Bastian can cross into
that realm any longer. We tried. It’s dead to us. We actually
feared Laryn would be unable to cross even for his claiming. We
don’t know how or even why it all works the way it does. You are
here, so obviously Laryn was successful at the claiming. I fear
they will continue every twenty-five years, minus Bastian’s turn,
until all have transcended to dragon. That could take thousands of
years. We have no way of knowing.”

I plop back into the chair and cover
my eyes. “I must return to the blue dragon, but I truly don’t want
to. I spent my life training to kill him and I’ve
failed.”

Acasia places a hand on my arm and her
gentle voice soothes me. “You haven’t failed. I know it’s hard now.
I also know the next few months will be harder. Someday you will
love your blue dragon as much as I love Bastian. It’s what the
claiming is all about. When you meet Sarn you will understand the
complete desolation a dragon goes through when a bride dies. Tahr’s
bride, Meagan, is still alive but old and frail. You will see how
he worships her. Then you will truly understand the gift granted to
us so that we may love a dragon.”

Chapter Ten

Laryn

I’ve created divots in the carpet from
stomping back and forth. It’s been three hours since my return. One
more hour and I will ruin what I’ve fought for these past
twenty-five years… peace with my brothers. But I will have my bride
back. Dragons are not known for patience. One hour!

Suddenly, my dragon radar goes on full
alert as Bastian crosses into my realm. Acasia and Ashrac are not
with him. My bride is. She may have no magic, but the invisible
bond created by the claiming is in perfect working order. I feel
her deep inside me. It doesn’t help my disposition. I don’t want
Bastian alone with my bride.

Bastian’s voice rings
through my head as he says, “That’s enough, Laryn. Your bride is
safe from me. Acasia would kill me if I so much as looked sideways
at your trinket.” My hands fist at the term
trinket
. I don’t know why it bothers
me, though. Bastian continues before I can blare back into his
head. “She wishes to be dropped off at the room in the tower that
you provided. No wonder she left at the first
opportunity.”

“
It’s a nice room,” I
grumble. “If I keep her too close, I will care about her. This way
is safest.”

Now I receive laughter before his
reply. “And how has that worked for you? I thought you wiser than
that. We have them so we may fall in love. The sooner the better.
It gives us more time.”

Those were nearly the same words
Maleah said before her death. It doesn’t matter because I will have
none of it. “Deposit her at the chamber. Tell her I will be there
shortly. It would help my disposition if she waits on her
knees.”