Treasure Lane Dragons: Complete Series (BBW Paranormal Dragon Shapeshifter Romance) (52 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Apollo

When Apollo woke, he just about threw Jade off of himself without realizing who she was and got up with his fists raised.

“Whoa there, dragon. Calm down,” a familiar voice sounded.

Apollo felt a hard hand on his chest, pushing him back down into the covers. Jade’s soft touch was there as well, greeting him, rousing him from his sleep.

“I know you healing dragons think you’re all the shit, but let’s try and contain our enthusiasm and not knock everyone out, eh?” Cillian said, chuckling as he shared a look with Jade.

“What the…” Apollo began, his vision hazy with tiredness.

Every muscle, joint and bone in his body ached. It felt like he’d been stripped for parts and then put back together again. His shoulders carried the weight of the world, and his neck was so sore that he had to wonder if he hadn’t rammed into a stone wall ten times over. He sat up, trying to take in his surroundings, but his gaze stopped on Jade – sweet, wild,
alive
Jade.

“You’re okay!” he said, smiling widely.

Fuck, even that hurt. Without another thought, he pulled her from the side of the bed right into his arms, burying his face in her hair and breathing in her scent. It still felt unreal. When he saw the ground coming towards him and found himself unable to peel away, his last thought had been that he’d failed Jade and Alexander. Now, finding her alive, and even more surprisingly still being alive himself, he suddenly had a lot more questions than answers.

Jade laughed softly, putting her hands around him carefully and resting her head on his shoulder. He could feel a tear trickle onto his skin, and he gently pushed Jade back, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

“Don’t cry, green eyes. We’re fine. I don’t fucking know how, but we are. Or… Where’s Alexander?” he asked, the frantic worry back in full force.

“No, he’s okay. He’s in the other room. He woke up yesterday. He’s alive, he’s fine,” she said, grinning wide.

A rock fell from Apollo’s chest, and it was as if he could breathe again. Alexander was alive. Jade was alright. And he? Well, he hurt like hell, but that was merely a side-effect of getting away with his life intact, right?

“What happened?” he asked, not letting Jade out of his grasp and looking from Jade to Cillian. “And what the hell are you doing here?”

“Is that any way to greet a friend?” Cillian asked, grinning his Cheshire grin.

“You know what I mean,” Apollo said with a mild smirk.

“Well, Devon’s in the habit of keeping tabs on dragons who are prone to cause trouble, and your close friends the Blackscales fit that bill. We’d already heard that your little rivalry was taking a turn for the worse, and when Ria called us after you two took off for Nevada like bats out of hell, we figured it was a good idea to come check on you lot. We got there just in time to keep you two from getting skinned by a pack of overzealous Death Wing fans.

“We brought you back here, and I’ve got to say, it would make our lives a hell of a lot easier if there were more healing dragons around. Ares is home and he kept going between you two, but it’s been a slow road.”

“How long have we been out?” Apollo asked, frowning.

True, he’d never felt as bad as this, but could it have been as dire as they said? When dragons healed, it was like going into stasis. The world fell away from them, and instead of experiencing the pain and discomfort, they focused on internal healing and something akin to meditation – consulting with the elders, as they called it.

Apollo and Alexander were healing dragons themselves, and they could make others heal quickly by giving them a taste of the Goldplains power. But there were not many like them, and while they could bring relief to others, it scarcely accelerated their own healing. Quite the contrary, sharing their energy like that seemed to have the opposite effect altogether.

“A week,” Jade said, her voice small.

Alright, so maybe it
had
been that bad.

“What about the Blackscales?” Apollo asked.

It wasn’t that he particularly cared what had happened to them, but deep in his gut, he knew it couldn’t have been good. They deserved everything that was coming to them, though – dragon blood or not. Cillian looked serious for a moment and shook his head thoughtfully.

“I don’t know. Colt was… a mess. Scraping you off the desert floor was difficult enough, but him… I’m not sure he made it. Broken wings, torn stomach, cuts, gashes… At the very least, he’ll never fly again.”

Apollo and Cillian shared a quiet look. There was no fate worse for a dragon than to lose his capability of flight. Well, perhaps losing his ability to fly
and
losing his hoard in one day would be worse, but either way, a dragon was no dragon without his wings.

“And Cameron?” Apollo queried, the severity of the situation dawning on him.

When he and Alexander had helped Devon after Remington Redblade attacked Devon’s mate, they hadn’t been sure whether Remington would make it either. Now the Blackscales… Too much dragon blood had been spilled. Dragon turning against dragon marked dark times for dragonkin.

“Alexander basically broke his jaw into pieces. It wasn’t pretty. He was torn open pretty bad too, but I think he made it. We informed the rest of the Blackscale brood and got out of there before anything else could happen. I had the groupies carted away into another patch of desert and called the police, citing that they seemed to be some deranged cult. I think a few days of sobering up from the Blackscales’ magic and they were good to go. I doubt they’ll remember a thing.”

Cillian shrugged, looking as serious as Apollo had ever seen him. The recent father of two, Cillian had gone from fixing problems for others, to building his own life with his lovely wife Ruby. Apollo and Alexander had healed him after a particularly brutal battle just recently, but dragons didn’t really ‘owe’ one another anything. He’d have to make sure to thank Cillian and Devon later. Having good friends was a luxury of the modern times and one that Apollo wasn’t looking to give up.

“Anyway, I think I need to give you two a moment,” Cillian said, smiling again and looking like his usual happy-go-lucky, devilish self. “I’ll go check up on your brother and let him know you’re still breathing, even if it’s mostly soot instead of flames at this point.”

“Thank you, Cillian!” Jade called after him as he exited the bedroom.

Apollo pulled her close to him again, leaning back on the pillows and gazing down at her. Her gorgeous green eyes sparkled back at him, and for a moment, he felt almost at peace. All that was missing was…

“I heard you’d decided not to kick the bucket!” Alexander called, striding, or more like limping, into the room.

Jade grinned, reaching out a hand to Alexander, who plopped down on the edge of the bed without further invitation. He took Jade’s hand and kissed it, and still holding onto her, rested his other hand on Apollo’s shoulder. Immediately, Apollo felt life flooding back into him, lighting all the dimmed nooks and crannies. Only together were they as strong as they could be, and Apollo was glad to know that even when times were rougher than he could ever have imagined, he had his brother, and now his bride, at his side.

Together, they seemed to be invincible.

“Seems so. Couldn’t let you keep Jade all to yourself,” Apollo said with a grin, receiving a smirk from Alexander.

“Just in time, too. The gold moon’s in two days. I assume we can get better by then, and also avoid having our bassist stolen again, hmm?”

Alexander winked at Jade, and she blushed just slightly.

“Are you still sure, Jade? Do you want to do this? Share your life with me and Alexander?” Apollo asked, noticing that his voice cracked just a little as he asked the question.

She nodded quickly, grabbing Apollo’s hand with her free one and squeezing it.

“Of course,” she said, the words music to his ears. “I’ve been through so much with you two already. Though we haven’t been together too long, I feel like I was always meant to be here, and everything that happened in the past just led me to you. I was following life like a string, not knowing where it was going, but luckily it brought me here. I couldn’t imagine being without you two. When Alexander collapsed, and the dust cleared, and I saw you tangled with Colt I thought… For a moment, I feared I had lost both of you. I couldn’t imagine a fate worse than knowing that I could have had love, could have had happiness, and then seeing it slip from my grasp.

So yes. I want to do it. I want it more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life,” she said, finishing with a sigh.

Alexander leant in and kissed her softly on the lips. She smiled and curled closer to Apollo, giving him a gentle kiss as well.

“So, we’re doing this,” Apollo said, liking the sound of it. “I thought the day would never come, but for once, Alexander, I think I have to admit that you were right.”

Alexander laughed out loud, though his laughter was cut short by a coughing fit.

“Try not to die just because I admitted I was wrong, okay?” Apollo bit, receiving a friendly glare from Alexander.

“I’ll do my best. But I think we should both rest, or suffer the consequences, it seems.”

Apollo patted the bed next to him and Jade.

“No better place than here, brother,” he said.

Alexander considered the option for a moment, nodded and clambered over Jade to the other side of the bed. With Jade’s head on Apollo’s shoulder and Alexander’s hand on Jade’s hip, sleep claimed them fast. Apollo had every intention of not letting her out of his sight for the next two days, and because he was going to have to deal with healing, well, she’d just have to stay in bed with him and Alexander.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Alexander

Alexander had to hand it to Apollo – he knew how to throw a party. While gold moon ceremonies were usually subdued, private affairs, Apollo had made it very clear that there was nothing subdued or private about him or the fact that the two biggest rock stars in the world were taking a wife.

Of course, they couldn’t let the public at large know, but there
had
to be a party. So, while the ceremony was the usual, emotional, powerful and uplifting event it always was, the party was everything but. Devon and Cillian and their brides had been their witnesses, and Ares had stood by their side, their younger brother looking both confused and happy about the sudden changes the Goldplains were making. After all, it wasn’t often that the nonconformists decided to embrace traditions, and by the looks of Ares, he wasn’t entirely sure how he fit into the whole scheme.

Now, the after party though… That was a shindig to remember. Alexander was somewhat surprised the mansion was still standing. They’d invited their entire crew (or to put it frankly, Michelle had, after she had given them a thorough earful about what complete pricks they were for not keeping her in the loop), and now, seven hours after the party had started, it was still going strong.

Dawn had come and passed, and Alexander had spent most of the night laughing, drinking, and kissing his and Apollo’s bride. The night had also brought some unsettling news, like learning that Shelly, one of the Gold Dragons’ most long-time band members had leaked their location, but most of it had been just as fun, insane and hilarious as Alexander had hoped.

Michelle had taken control of the media and easily rerouted the attention the Gold Dragons’ were getting for postponing their tour onto other matters that seemed just as unimportant, while also keeping Death Wing out of it. Shelly had been dealt with (“She won’t even be singing in a fucking church choir in bumfuck Pensa-bama from now on,” as Michelle had so eloquently put), his and Apollo’s wounds had healed from being around one another, and Jade was beaming like the happiest bride in the world.

They’d taken her down to the hoard right after the ceremony and shown her what exactly she had inherited along with the two scorching hot dragons. Alexander was happy to see that she remained as cool-headed about their hoard as she was with most things. They’d each picked out a bangle for her, and along with the pure gold and diamond pendant that the dragon stone had been transformed into during the ceremony, she was fit to rule all dragons, not just Alexander and Apollo’s hearts.

Across the room, Alexander noticed Jade standing at one of the big windows of the main lounge, looking out with a smile on her lips. Her fingers were tracing the outlines of the intricate pendant she wore, and she looked absolutely breathtaking as the light bathed her delicate, soft features.