Torn: A Dragon Shifter BBW Menage Serial (Seeking Her Mates Book 1) (5 page)

T
he large sitting
room was welcoming as always when she arrived, a fire burning in its great hearth and comfortable upholstered chairs which had likely been swiped from the nineteenth century facing the flames, begging for visitors to seat themselves and to rest.

In spite of the pain of leaving Conor behind, Lily wanted desperately to see her family before settling in, and that meant the usual hunt through the many labyrinthine corridors between Dundurn Castle’s walls.

She must do her best not to let what had occurred between herself and Conor be a hindrance. Now she was home and would have time to sort her feelings. Perhaps her mother could even offer a word or two of advice. After all, she would know that something was up.

Carrying only her small bag, Lily wandered into the hallway. All that she’d required in the twenty-first century was unnecessary here; the clothing that she’d worn in London would feel unsuitable, and any appliances that she’d left behind in her flat would be unusable with no electrical outlets. She’d packed up only the bare essentials to make life more comfortable, which included some gifts, a modern toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, quite a few pairs of panties to which she’d treated herself, and feminine hygiene products—a luxury in her own century.

The castle’s dire wolf guards nodded to her respectfully as she passed, recognizing her as the Lords’ and Queen’s daughter, but it was some time before she saw someone she knew intimately, a woman who had paused in order to straighten a painting which had gone slightly wonky on the wall.

“Ygrena,” Lily called out to her old nanny, who turned around when she heard the familiar voice.

“Lily!” Ygrena ran to her and threw her arms around the young woman she’d helped raise from birth. “It’s been so
long
.”

“Has it? I wasn’t sure if I’d step back through that portal and discover that only a day had passed, like some sort of C. S. Lewis adventure,” laughed Lily.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could turn back time or slow it like that?” asked Ygrena, whose human form had always given her grief for its inability to behave in the fantastic ways her shifter friends’ bodies did. She aged so much faster than them, for one thing; faster than her lover, Hallam, who would always look like a gorgeous twenty-five year old man while wrinkles formed on Ygrena’s brow. But he seemed to love her regardless of her flaws, and for that at least, she was eternally grateful.

“Speaking of aging, I brought you something,” said Lily, who reached into her bag and extracted a tub of lotion. “It’s supposed to be for wrinkles,” she said. “Not that you have any, of course. But I thought you might like it.”

Ygrena opened it and peered inside. The white stuff glistened and smelled quite delicious, really. “Do I eat it?” she asked, puzzled.

“No, silly. You spread it on your face. Sort of like a salve.”

“Thank you, Lily,” Ygrena said with too much hope in her voice. Everything from modern times seemed so effective that surely this stuff must work.

“You’re welcome. Hey—I want to catch up with you, but do you know where my parents are? They’ll kill me if I don’t find them as soon as possible.”

“Lord Rauth is around, somewhere. I think he’s in one of his diplomatic sessions with some lord or other. And Lord Lachlan is off combing the woods for dinner—you know how he is when one of you children comes home,” she said. “Though in all honesty I think they’ve been expecting you for days, so there has been a good deal of game around here for nightly dinner.”

“Well, when Rohan returns, no doubt he’ll travel to some exotic locale and find an elephant or a blue whale to roast.” Lily laughed. “I do appreciate the sentiment, though.”

“And your mother is, I think, in the courtyard, reading.”

“Of course she is. Always with the books. I’m amazed that she hasn’t gone blind.”

“I’m not entirely sure a dragon can go blind,” said Ygrena. “If anything, her eyesight’s improving. As is her mind, I’m sure.”

“Well, I like hearing that. I can only hope my own senses improve as my déor ages. As for reading, I’ve done enough of that to last a lifetime. Do you know that in the twenty-first century, they act like people of our era are utter idiots?”

“I suppose we must seem a little simple to them,” admitted Ygrena, who’d always found herself baffled by the stories that came out of modern times, of so-called airplanes and cars. There was something called the internet in which people communicated with one another from great distances via small machines that they kept in their pockets. The whole thing was fascinating yet more horrifying, somehow, than the notion of a fire-breathing dragon.

Lily gave Ygrena a kiss on the cheek and took off running for the courtyard, where she did indeed find Gwynne firmly absorbed in a novel. She stopped only when her daughter was close enough that her scent proved an interruption. A dragon mother knew nothing better than the smell of her own offspring.

“I’m so glad to see you,” Gwynne said, throwing her arms open for Lily’s violent embrace, which nearly knocked her off the bench. “I wasn’t sure when you’re arrive.”

“Neither was I. The perils of time travel,” said her daughter, seating herself on the stone bench next to her mother. “How are you?”

“Very well. Sad, of course, to be without my children for such long periods.” With that she twisted her mouth into an exaggerated frown. “I’m only kidding. Of course I was delighted to have the place to myself. You and Rohan eat all the food around here, and your late night joy rides drive me to distraction.”

“Ha,” said Lily. “Joy rides have such a different connotation when you’re talking about shifters, don’t they?”

Gwynne smiled. “It’s been a while for you, hasn’t it? Since you’ve flown?”

“It has, and I’ve missed it. But I’ve had plenty of distractions to keep my mind occupied.”

“Have you now?” Gwynne put a hand on top of her daughter’s. “Lily…are you saving yourself for the Ritual?”

“I don’t know what I’m doing, to be honest.” She looked at her mother, uncertain of what to reveal. “I met someone.”

“Did you?” Gwynne smiled. She knew that in an ideal world, Lily would abide by all the unwritten laws of the shifter nobility. But she herself had enjoyed her university days and all that came with them, and perhaps her daughter should too.

“Sort of. I know I can’t be with him. I…pushed him away. I told him I couldn’t.”

“One of the perils of going out and finding one’s self is that it’s easy to grow attached to the idea of freedom, my sweet daughter,” said Gwynne, turning and taking both of Lily’s hands in her own. “But I’ll tell you something—being thrust into this life which is a very different sort of freedom, into this time and world—was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”

“But you were brought here almost against your will, mum. Wasn’t it hard for you to develop feelings for my fathers?”

“Oddly enough, no,” laughed Gwynne, who recalled the vision of beauty that had first collided with her eyes when she’d set them upon Lachlan. “The fact is that we need to find you an appropriate mate. Two, in fact. And we will, and you will perhaps be surprised by how quickly you can grow to love them. It’s understandable that you would develop a fondness for a boy at school. Of course you did. You were on your own, and there was novelty to him, I’m sure. But now you must begin to think of your duty, of the long term…”

Lily found herself once again on the verge of speaking but stopped herself. There was no point in stating that Conor seemed different, special. All of it would be attributed to a sort of puppy love, and she couldn’t have borne that. It was more, she knew; there was something deep between them that no one else would or could understand.

“I’ll think about duty, mum.” She spoke the words with commitment. But she knew full well that she would also be thinking a good deal about the man she’d left behind.

T
hat evening
, Lily was reunited with her two fathers, the dire wolf pack’s two leaders: Lachlan, the alpha, and Rauth, who had given up the role years earlier. But the wolves still treated him like another alpha; Rauth was a force to be reckoned with and when he set his mind on a plan, the wolves followed through on it.

The reunion was a joyous one. Lily had missed the her parents more than she’d known.

“But where is Freya?” she asked when they were all together. Freya, her grandmother, had not been present since her return.

“With a certain human doctor in another century,” laughed Gwynne. For years her mother had been involved with a man from the other side, and while she returned frequently for visits, she was no longer a permanent resident of Dundurn.

“Well, as long as she’s happy, I’m happy.” Lily had to admit that she was disappointed not to be able to seek counsel with her Nana, but truly pleased to see her happy. Freya’s life had been fraught with difficulties and violence. But now she could be at peace. And Lily liked the idea that she’d found love with a human.

That night as she lay in bed, Lily imagined Conor’s body above hers, the feel of his skin under her hands and his scent as he moved into her.

In her mind their bodies became one.

This was no puppy love. She needed to be with him.

S
he awoke early
one morning to a knock on her door. As it swung open she rose, irritated at the intrusion and glad to have worn a nightgown.

“Does no one around here ever wait to be invited —” she began, growling as she spoke. But her face altered immediately as she saw who her guest was.

“Roh!” she cried, throwing herself towards her twin brother.

“Hallo, Lily,” he said, embracing her in a great bear hug. The two of them had never spent this much time apart, and having her brother so far away had felt like a part of her was temporarily missing.

“When did you get back?” she asked. “And I want to hear all about the United States and your studies.”

“Just now,” he said. “I made sure to say hello to the parental units first, of course.”

“Parental units. You’re all modern and hip,” laughed Lily. “I mean, like,
ten years ago
hip.”

Her brother slapped her shoulder gently. “So tell me how everything is with you,” he said. “I want to hear about your adventures.”

Lily filled him in on her school year; on how she’d enjoyed her time away yet missed her family and Dundurn unbearably. At first she hesitated to tell him about Conor, though. It turned out that she didn’t need to.

“There’s a man,” said Rohan after a time.

“Mum told you?”

“No. I can tell. Call it brother’s intuition. Something about you is different, and usually a man’s to blame for that sort of thing.”

“Fine. There’s a man,” she said. “And clearly I can’t have any secrets. To be honest I’m not sure how to deal with the whole situation—it’s new to me. But then again, he’s hundreds of years away so out of sight, out of mind, right?’

“I’m not sure that’s how it works, not really,” said Rohan, his voice serious for once. “You need to listen to your instincts, Lily. They’ve never steered you wrong. If he stays with you, you need to consider that it may be happening for a reason.”

“Maybe. But your theory is no good: my instincts have never steered me wrong? What about the time you and I ended up at the bottom of a well?”

“You and I are never at the bottom of a well, or anything else, for long,” he said. “The benefits of flight are many.”

“True.”

“Well, you need to sort all of this out. Whatever happens, you’re an adult. You are not ruled by our parents, however they may try to tell you otherwise. And when it comes time to…mate…” the word stuck in his throat. Rohan’s sister would always be little Lily to him, and it was difficult to speak to her about such things. “When the time comes, you need to remember that your instincts are the ones that need to lead. Remember that mum followed her instincts in coming here. Until then she wasn’t even a shifter.”

“No,” said Lily, pondering the thought. “But she had shifters’ blood in her. I couldn’t mate with a human. It would make no sense, particularly in context of a Ritual. I need two strong shifters who are preferably leaders.”

“Fair enough. Still, I want you to be happy. But for now I need some roast pig or whatever’s to eat around here,” said Rohan, standing and straightening his tunic. “I’d forgotten how ridiculous our clothing is,” he said. “Why has no one discovered the joys of a cotton t-shirt and a pair of jeans?”

“Welcome back to the middle ages,” laughed Lily.

L
ily spent
idle afternoons wandering the grounds around Dundurn or hiking through the woods and bathing in the streams which meandered, vein-like, under green swaying branches of dense forest beyond the castle grounds. On occasion when she was a good distance from human society she shifted, allowing her graceful dragon form some time in the air to soar as she had as a youngster, above raging whitecaps in the ocean below or masses of green treetops, more free even than the birds who fled from her in terror as she approached.

When she’d been younger, her déor had been gangly and awkward like a fawn whose legs didn’t know which way to move. Her dragon’s long neck had made it look as though its head were too heavy for its thin body. But as she’d grown to her full height, the creature had grown as well, becoming beautiful, lithe as a bounding deer, but strong as a great lion.

As she took to the sky she often found herself gravitating toward the areas near the ocean’s shore. She loved to watch the waves strike the rock face of Cornwall’s coast with a force that had created great, gaping holes in the stone over time, ancient caves which called out to be explored. When she and Rohan had been little, they’d spent a good deal of time roaming around them and through their dark tunnels which occasionally flooded with the rising of the tide.

In spite of the days long ago when the twins had been held against their will in a barrow by their grandfather, neither of them associated these natural caverns with him or their ordeal.

And ironically enough, Lily realized, the absence of Conor seemed a much worse fate now than something that had occurred so long in the past. He remained firmly entrenched in her mind as though someone had fixed him in place, and nothing seemed to cure her of thoughts and fantasies of him—his eyes, mouth, body. And so she allowed the images to move through her thoughts, enjoying them while they lasted. So he’d become a spectre, a mere dream of a man. He was a pleasant one, and she enjoyed the company.

It was on one of her relaxing afternoons that she returned to Dundurn Castle to find her mother waiting for her.

“We’re having a guest at dinner tonight,” Gwynne told her. “Wear something nice.”

Her face, though warm and smiling, dictated that she meant business. This guest must be some sort of noble associate of Lily’s fathers’. Since the conflict so many years ago with Lord Drake, her kidnapper and grandfather who’d done his best to take down the wolves, the land had been largely at peace.

Often Lachlan and Rauth met with other noblemen in order to negotiate about matters of land and hierarchy, always in the interest of preserving the calm that had settled on their land. Some of the men who came for prolonged visits—many, in fact—didn’t realize that they were dealing with dire wolf shifters. They saw the alphas as aristocrats interested in financial dealings rather than the hulking creatures who hunted through the woods in packs.

Lily dressed for the evening in a long silk gown, much like what her mother tended so often to wear. But whereas Gwynne favoured golden shades, her daughter chose often to cover herself in crimson. Something in the colour empowered her, and as she gazed at her reflection when she’d dressed she thought of Conor, wondering what he would think of the sight of the young woman he seemed so attracted to as she was now; very much of a different era, a regal air to her. Her curves which had rendered her self-conscious in his time were accentuated by her clothing now, and she wore them with as much pride as she did the scales of her flame-coated déor.

It wasn’t long before a servant came to fetch her, telling her that dinner was to be served very soon. Lilliana let out a sigh as though venting any pent-up frustration and moved towards the door. Life was becoming too predictable again; too much like it had always been: following a line of duty, behaving according to her station, smiling for strangers while attempting to charm them. There was in her existence none of the wildness that she so craved, and none of the privacy.

Only thoughts of the forbidden man back in London allowed her any sort of secrecy.

She made her way towards the Great Hall, which was only ever used for occasions such as these. Otherwise her family ate in a much smaller, more secluded space where one father would talk about the troubles up north while the other spoke of the clan’s weekly hunt. In many ways they were like a regular family.

Of course, in many others, they were anything but.

The Hall was as Lily remembered: enormously long and hung with various tapestries, flags and the family crest, which was a relatively new design: a large shield decorated with a painting of a golden dragon with two great wolves on either side, seeming almost to worship the great creature between them. Lily had always liked the image: her fathers in awe of her mother, the dragon queen. She wondered if she could ever live up to that sort of reputation.

She sat next to Rohan, who was already in place at the long wooden table which spanned almost the entire length of the great chamber. He smiled knowingly when they made eye contact. Her brother always knew, like her mother did, what was in her mind.

“Another diplomatic session with a pile of stodgy aristocrats, I think,” he whispered. “I missed these evenings so much while I was away. Wait—no, I didn’t.”

Lily stifled laughter. “I only hope the aristocrats are old and offer our fathers a herd of goats and the heads of our mortal enemies as some sort of offering. That always makes for a fun evening.”

“Fingers crossed for livestock and severed heads then,” said Rohan.

A moment later, a guard at the door announced the visitor who was about to enter the chamber. “Lord Ramsey,” he said, his voice booming throughout the large room of stone and wood.

Lilliana and Rohan stood to greet the guest, as did the rest of the party.

A man came through the door, followed by two armed guards of his own. This in itself revealed that he was significant; most men who had entered the room over the years were alone, or at best accompanied by a wife or one submissive servant.

The guest was tall and broad-shouldered, like the dire wolf leaders. His eyes shone light green against bronzed skin, which made them seem almost to glow, though Lily couldn’t yet manage to make out their colour.

“A dragon, I think,” she murmured to Rohan, stunned at the man’s face.

“Looks like it,” her brother replied. “I hadn’t heard of other dragons in this part of the world—or elsewhere, for that matter. I was always under the impression that Lord Drake’s line—our line, I mean—was the last of them.”

Lily sat down, quietly contemplating the man who was being guided to the opposite side of the table. She found herself working to ensure that her mouth wasn’t gaping open as the servant led him to a seat directly opposite her. This strategic placement of their guest in such close proximity to her seemed almost too deliberate a move; something was up.

Gwynne walked over and stood next to the man in order to introduce him to her children.

“Lord Ramsey, this is Lord Rohan,” she said as her son nodded in greeting. “And this is Lilliana, whom I’ve told you about.”

“Ah, yes,” the man replied. The first words out of him revealed a deep, mature voice, and Lily found herself wondering how old he was. “More beautiful than I’d expected, even. But then, considering her mother, it’s no great surprise to find a daughter so lovely.”

Gwynne smiled, looking over the table at Lily as though in an attempt to read her expression.

“Thank you,” Lily replied dutifully, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Such forward compliments always felt disingenuous, and particularly on a first meeting. What was this guy’s angle, anyhow?

“Maybe you’ve just met a future mate,” whispered Rohan, who was leaning in, having pretended to have dropped his napkin on the ground. “He seems a little old for you, my little twin. But what a charmer.”

“He is that,” said Lily. “But he does seem awfully…experienced.” He was an attractive man, but had a mature look about him, like that of a leader. Her fathers had the same air about them; confidence, knowledge wrapped up in a handsome couple of packages.

“Lord Ramsey,” she said, “How long have you been in this part of Cornwall?”

“Only since this morning,” replied the man. “I’ve been meeting with your fathers on business all day. But I must say that I was greatly looking forward to this evening…and you.”

Again with the forwardness. Lily found herself reaching for Rohan’s arm as though for protection. Surely this man wasn’t intended for her.

Rauth, seated at the guest’s right, spoke up now. “You may as well hear it now: There will be a tournament, Lilliana. For your…hand. In a few days. Lord Ramsey’s son Graeme is one among many who plan to compete,” he said.

Lily’s first instinct was to stand up and scream. But she remained still, jaw locked to prevent the howl that she feared might emerge if she allowed her mouth to open.

A tournament? Who had decided this? Since when was
this
a plan? But Rohan’s hand went to her forearm and gripped it, telling her preemptively to calm herself. This isn’t a time to freak out, he was telling her. Settle down.

“Compete?” she asked, doing her best to keep her voice calm. “Compete
how
?”

“As I said, in a tournament. It won’t be your typical jousting and fencing sort of thing. These are shifters we’re talking about, after all.”

“Oh, excellent,” said Rohan, his tone jovial. “So there’s going to be some blood. It’s been too long since anyone’s killed each other around here.”

“Quiet, you,” growled Gwynne, who was seated some distance away. In spite of the reprimand of her son she couldn’t help but smile. “The goal isn’t to watch them kill each other. It’s much like the competition that your fathers engaged in many years ago, to determine the wolf pack’s alpha.”

“Funny how well that worked out,” muttered Rohan under his breath.

“Two men will be selected as appropriate and worthy mates for Lilliana,” Lachlan interjected.
So
, Lily thought,
all three of my parents had this all planned out. Well, good for them.

“I don’t suppose that I have any say in this,” she said quietly, avoiding eye contact with the dignified stranger across the table. She knew full well that her words might be offensive to him—after all, his son was her potential mate—but in that moment she didn’t care much.

“Lilliana,” said Rauth, his tone harsh. “You forget yourself. You’ve known all your life what your duties are. Don’t let a few months away in the modern era wash all of your upbringing away. If you must know, there is unrest among shifters building in the north and it would be in our best interest to have you find your mates sooner rather than later, to carry on the line. We’re talking about power, control of land and our legacy.”

Rauth was being what Lily had termed “Mister Grumpy Trousers” when she was young; when he got into his dictatorial moods, normally she knew to smile sweetly and charm him. And she never failed.

But she knew that he was right: her time in 2015 had changed her. She’d seen the possibilities which lay beyond Dundurn’s walls, and the notion of returning to the old ways was a difficult one to grasp. Particularly when she’d left a man in that other time who intrigued her so much…

She found herself staring pleadingly at Lachlan, the other of her two fathers, who simply winked at her. “We’ll speak about it later, Lilliana,” he said. “For now, let’s enjoy our meal.”

In spite of her initial anger, Lily felt remorse at having been rude to their guest and resolved to be kinder and to display some interest in his presence. It wasn’t his fault, after all, that her family had decided that it was time to breed her like a champion race horse.

“Tell us about your son,” she said, smiling and behaving in a manner more appropriate for a princess. Though what she wanted to ask was, “Does he look like you?”
If he does,
she thought,
it wouldn’t be a bad thing at all.

“Graeme is an impressive young man,” said Lord Ramsey. “If I may say so myself. He is a trained fighter, which is more a result of the circumstances around our own land than anything. There’s been a good deal of conflict up there over the years with rival clans.”

“There are more dragons up there?” asked Lily, finding herself intrigued.

“Not so many dragons. Bears, wolves, flyers and others. Dragons, as you probably know, are a rarity. Ours is one of the few lines that’s carried on the species.”

“I knew that we were a rare sort. In fact, I grew up thinking that there were no others in existence.”

“There are a few about,” laughed the lord. “But many remain hidden for fear of the sort of warring that seems to come of their existence. It’s a bit of a curse that not only humans, but other shifters, want constantly to take us down.”

“Why is that, Lord Ramsey?”

“It’s what everything comes down to in the end: a profound desire for power. There are few who can take down a dragon and so we’re seen to have an irrevocable hold on our lands. There are those who resent our strength, as you can imagine.”

Lily felt a new gratitude that the human residents of Trekilling, the nearby town, were not only accepting but appreciative of the existence of her family as protectors and fair leaders.

“And so your son has fought in the wars?” she continued.

“He has. He is a skilled fighter.”

“And how does he feel about having to compete for my sister?” interrupted Rohan, who’d remained silent until that moment. Lily wondered if he was being mischievous or sincere, but ultimately she opted for the latter. Her brother would be concerned about her future happiness, and a reluctant, resentful mate was the last thing he’d desire for her.

“Competition is in his blood,” said Lord Ramsey. “It is in the winning of her hand that there might be difficulty, however.”

“How do you mean?” asked Lily. It sounded like Graeme would have the tournament in the bag.

“I mean that he was not raised as you were, Lilliana. While he is aware of the Ritual, he grew up with two parents as most humans do. You see, there were originally two of us males, both mated with Graeme’s mother as your fathers are with Lady Gwynne. But one died when Graeme was very young and he’s never been exposed to the notion of a woman sharing two mates.”