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Authors: Charlene Hartnady

Royal Dragon (The Bride Hunt Book 1) (22 page)

BOOK: Royal Dragon (The Bride Hunt Book 1)

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“You said I was close.”

He nodded. “There is a chance that you won’t become pregnant.”

“A chance…” She covered her face with her hands and made a sobbing noise. “There is a chance I
am
pregnant. Oh no! I swear, if I’m not we’re never having sex again. We can’t take that risk ever again.”

He tried not to laugh. “We will be having lots of sex, Julie.”

She shook her head. “No! Forget it! If I’m not knocked up we can’t have sex again. We can fool around but that’s it. No sex!”

“Julie.” He brushed the hair from her face. “Let’s see what happens. You might be having a panic attack over nothing. Besides, a baby would be—”

“Don’t say it.” This time when she pulled away he let her. “Don’t talk about how wonderful a baby would be or how precious.”

“Our child would be those things. He would be a perfect combination of us. He would be—”

“Exactly, Coal. He would be… or she… would be incredible. A beautiful cherub. I can just picture his or her toothy grin and chubby hands.” Her eyes brightened up and she almost smiled. Then a cloud descended. “I would ruin it all. I—”

“You would be a good mother, Julie. How can you be so sure that you wouldn’t be? How could you know with such certainty?”

“My mom was awful. She was horrible…” Julie shivered. “I still loved her. I missed her after the state took me away from her.”

Coal felt himself frown. Julie had said that she didn’t remember her mother. He didn’t say anything. She was finally opening up to him and he was damned if he was going to interrupt.

Her beautiful eyes lifted to his. Tears continued to fall. “She was a drug addict. More concerned with her next fix than her child. She would disappear for what felt like days. I was a tiny girl.” She swallowed thickly. “Just a little girl. I would eat whatever I could find, which wasn’t much.” Julie rubbed her face with a hand. “I screamed when they took me away. I reached for her but she didn’t reach back. Why didn’t she reach back?”

He pulled her into his chest. His eyes pricked. His heart felt heavy.

“I was her daughter. Her blood ran through my veins. She was a horrible mother. I wouldn’t know the first thing about being a good mother. I’ve never been taught how to be one. I wouldn’t know the first thing.”

Coal held her while she sobbed. “I don’t know much about these drugs. Only what I have been told. I know that they take away emotion. That they strip away a person’s soul. I know that if your mother was capable of loving you that her heart would’ve burst with the emotion.” He pulled away so that he could look into her tear soaked eyes.

“You have so much love to give. You are caring, loving and fierce. I will be so happy to call you my mate and I would be thrilled to have you as the mother of my children. If you never trust anything else I say ever again, believe that. Your mother would’ve reached for you if she hadn’t been so numbed by the substances in her veins. Know that you will never be alone again because I will always reach for you. Just the mere fact that you are so afraid tells me that you will be a great mother.”

She sniffed. “Do you think so?” Hope filled her eyes.

Coal nodded. “More than sure.” He knew from the way she had spoken earlier that she did want children. Deep down inside. She was just afraid, and with good reason. Julie was wrong about being a bad mother.

She might not be pregnant. He felt a pang at the thought. If she was pregnant they had time. He would make sure that she was fully onboard and that any doubts she had were dispelled. If she wasn’t pregnant, he would work on patience. Coal was sure that there were children in their future regardless.

Julie nodded. “Okay. We’ll get through this together.”

“I’m not worried, Julie. We will be fine. Our children will love you and you will love them right back.”

“I might not be pregnant, so don’t say that.” She gave his arm a slap.

“I hope you are but if you aren’t we will work on it at some point in the future.”

“How long do we need to wait?”

“About a week.”

“So long?” Her eyes were bright. If he didn’t know better he would say that she looked excited.

Chapter 19

One week later…

“This is crazy.” Julie’s voice shook. “It is the craziest thing I’ve ever… I don’t know if I can do this.” She felt faint. Her heart raced.

Coal tightened his hold on her hand. “We can do this.” He smiled at her. He was so gorgeous when he smiled. Then again, he was gorgeous when he scowled and gorgeous when he roared. He was gorgeous when… okay, he was gorgeous at all times.

She looked down at her lacy, white dress. It wasn’t a wedding dress. Not really but it was pretty. “I don’t want to ruin my dress.” She smoothed the material with her free hand, her fingers coming to rest on her stomach. “It might be bad for the baby. I don’t want to scramble my egg.”

She still couldn’t believe that she was pregnant. She was going to have a baby. Scratch that, she was going to give birth to an egg. An egg. Coal could’ve told her that little detail before he knocked her up. Then again, she smiled, it wouldn’t have mattered. Not one bit. She would have this man’s egg. She would do anything for him because she… anything. Maybe anything was too strong a word. She looked down the sheer cliff and shuffled backwards an inch or two. Some loose stones clattered down the side of the drop. Oh and what a drop it was.

She turned. There were a couple of people present. Blaze, who smiled. Pauline and Flame who had taken the plunge a few days ago.

Taken the plunge!

“Why didn’t you guys tell me that taking the plunge was a literal thing? I don’t know that I would’ve agreed to mating you if I had known.”

“You would have.”

Julie made a fake growly noise. Yes, she would have. “I’m crazy.”

“Crazy in love with me.”

“Arrogant much?”

“It’s a simple fact.” He put an arm around her. “I’m nuts about you too. Now, shall we? I really want to make this official. I told you that I would never let you fall. That I would always catch you and I meant it.”

“I understand that this is a part of your traditions but dragon shifter women can fly so it’s hardly fair.”

“Trust me. Just close your eyes and take the plunge. Trust me, please, Julie.”

“Is this the only way?” She did trust him but this was beyond trust. This was throwing herself off a cliff and trusting that he would catch her without ripping her apart with his talons or squeezing her too tightly or knocking her against the cliff. “If I don’t do this then that’s it, we can’t be mated?”

He cupped both her cheeks. “You
can
do this.”

“I love you but this is nuts.”

“You might enjoy it.”

“Doubtful, but okay…”

“Okay?” he smiled. “I wasn’t sure if you could go through with it.”

“Only because I don’t want my baby to be born out of wedlock. If it was just you and me I wouldn’t do it – just so you know.”

“You so would.” He kissed her softly. “You’re already a good mother, putting our baby before yourself. An amazing mother.” He kissed her, sweeping his tongue against her lips, then plunging it into her mouth.

Julie moaned. She was still nervous that he was wrong but she would work hard every day to be the best mother. To prove herself worthy. The last few days had been really hard. She’d suddenly realized that she really wanted to be pregnant. She wanted to be a mom but only because Coal was at her side.

“Save it for your honeymoon you lovebirds!” Pauline shouted.

Coal broke the kiss. “Ready?”

She stared at the gold flecks in his dark eyes feeling more love than she’d ever hoped to feel and nodded. “Yes. I am.”

Coal took a step back.

Julie turned and flung herself from the cliff. There was no fear. No worry. Just love and trust. Coal caught her. Her heart beat like mad in her chest. It was a quick flight back to the lair.

She clutched her stomach, watching as he shifted back into his human form. A royal dragon grew inside her. At least, the fire dragons held hope that the child would be royal. It didn’t matter to her. Just like it didn’t matter to Coal.

“I can’t wait to meet him.” Her mate nuzzled her belly, his arms around her.

“Or her. Our baby might be a girl.”

“The vampires told us that all of their young born to human females have been males. The two human females that bore dragon young both had males, it stands to reason that our little one will be a boy.”

“As long as he or she is healthy.”

“He is a royal, of course he will be healthy.” Sincerity shone in his gaze. “Come, mate, let’s go to bed. I would like to show you how much I love you. Thank you for trusting me.”

“You’re welcome. Thank you for catching me. Let’s go.”

“I will always catch you.” Julie giggled as he lifted her into his arms.

Water Dragon, Book 2 of The Bride Hunt, is available for pre-order
now

Author’s Note

Thank-you for reading the first book in my new series. It is a spin off from my bestselling series The Chosen and The Program.

This book would not have been possible without the assistance of my editor and beta readers. Thank you KR, Aisha and Enid. Also, a big thank you to my ARC readers for your invaluable input and support. Especially those of you that review my books every time without fail. I’m talking about you Judy and Ana… there are more of you. Thank you all!!

A big thank you to you… my readers. For reading my work and for all your messages and emails. Also, to those of you that take the time to review my books. It means the world to me. You are what keeps me writing on days that I might not feel like it so much.

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I live on an acre in the country with my gorgeous husband and three sons and an array of pets including a ball python.

You can usually find me typing frantically on the computer completely lost in worlds of my making. I believe that it is the small things that truly matter like that feeling you get when you start a new book or a particularly beautiful sunset.

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