Arielle snorted softly, her breath hitching as she realized what she’d done. She held it in as long as she could and then released it slowly, hoping that they didn’t notice she wasn’t asleep.
“Arielle won’t care,” Drake said. Almost as an afterthought he added on, “She’s got to know that everything we’re doing is going to keep her safe. It’s our only option. At least until we figure out exactly who it was that was trying to take her and why.”
One of them snapped their fingers, and then Erik said, “What if there’s an alternative?”
“What’s that?”
Erik chuckled. “You could protect her here. She doesn’t have to leave her house or Gilcurry. Hell, if she went back to the dragon realm you know that Dani would have to go, too. She doesn’t want to leave Arielle on her own. The only reason she’s not here is because her feet started to swell up and Cass convinced her that she had to go to bed.”
“Your Omega is one of a kind.”
Erik snorted. “You still can’t have her.”
“I’ve got my own hands full, if you haven’t noticed.” Irritation filled her brother’s voice, and Arielle really fought hard not to burst out laughing at his ridiculousness.
They all knew about the problems that he was having with Mary and his failed attempts to woo her. The problem was, she didn’t just want to be his consort, and didn’t give a shit about him being a king.
Moments filled with silence stretched between them, and Arielle thought maybe they were done with their conversation, until Drake started up again.
“You know, I could assign some of my men to watch over her. Here.”
That was it. Arielle couldn’t take it anymore. In a flurry, she threw the blankets off of her body, or tried to at least. Someone had wrapped her up in it, so instead of a grand entrance, she tumbled to the floor with a crash and a screech that had both of her brothers running into the living room with mixed looks of panic and relief.
“You,” she spluttered and shoved a finger in Drake’s face when she got up. “You’re not going to keep me prisoner. I’ve had enough of that my entire life. I’m staying here. And you’re not going to assign men to be my babysitter. I’m an adult, and if you try I’ll just make their lives miserable.” She crossed her arms and gave both of her brothers her best glare.
It didn’t work.
Arielle was barely five-feet tall, and both of her brothers were well over six-foot-five. They were both muscular, and she looked like a child standing next to them. The only thing they had in common was the matching dark blue eyes that they’d inherited from their father. Other than that they were exact opposites. Arielle had black hair, and her skin was pale. She knew that she looked like a doll. Erik and Drake both had blonde hair. She felt like the outcast in their family.
“You’re adorable,” Drake said. “But you don’t scare me.”
Arielle’s growl had both of them looking at her with raised eyebrows.
“I’m not a prisoner anymore,” she insisted. “There’s nothing you can do that will make me go back to the dragon realm. I’d rather die.”
“Fine.” Erik shrugged, earning her ire. “Drake will have some of his men come here. But until we know that you’re not in danger, we’re going to protect you. That’s all there is to it. You can argue all you want, but we’re not going to back down, not on this.”
“Look,” Drake interrupted, still trying to convince her that returning to the Dragon Realm was the best course of action. “The Dragon Realm is safe. We’ve wiped all traces of our father from the ranks, and you’ll be safe.”
“I’m not going. You two might be stubborn, but you don’t know anything about me. Not really. I’m not going back, and if you try to force me … I will fight until I die to get out of it and away from you. This is a mountain that I’m willing to die on. It’s not happening.” Arielle stood her ground, refusing to budge. She couldn’t go back. She wouldn’t ever go there again, not willingly.
Drake stared at her, obviously contemplating his chances if he tried to force her. She saw when he came to the conclusion that he wouldn’t get anywhere with it. The tension in his shoulders relaxed and he took a deep breath.
“Fine. But I am assigning my best men to protect you. That’s the only way this is going to happen, you staying here.”
“Fine.” Arielle echoed him, almost mocking the way he said it. She knew when to pick her battles, and this was most definitely one of the ones that she wouldn’t be able to get away from suffering through. “But don’t expect me to like it,” she added.
“There will be rules.” Drake’s words sent her into a minor panic attack.
Those same words were ones that her father used on her so long ago. In an instant, Arielle was no longer standing in her house with her brothers. No. She was back in the Dragon Realm, smelling ash and fire. Her father was standing in front of her when she had just turned fifteen, with a man at his side.
“There will be rules,” he said mockingly. “You’ll stay here and let him do whatever he wants to you, and in return you’ll be allowed to leave one day.”
“Yes, father.” She’d lowered her eyes to the ground, refusing to look at either of them. She was horrified. The old woman that had cared for her made it clear that one day she’d be used by her father and there was nothing they could do about it.
What the old woman had done was to teach her to conceal who she was and what her powers were. Otherwise, she told Arielle that there was nothing in the world that would save her from her father.
She didn’t know anything about what to expect, though. She hadn’t prepared for the pain, or the raging inferno that burned deep inside her as she tried to get away that first time.
He’d broken her arm, and then forced her to shift so that he could see her heal the wound. Arielle was thankful for the old woman when it happened. With tears running down her face, pain radiating through her body, and her life on the line, she made a choice. Arielle knew how to protect herself, and she’d watched two dark blue dragons fly outside the window. When she shifted, she was blue and silver, their perfect complement.
“Arielle,” Drake snapped.
She shook her head, trying to get rid of the memories that had forced their way into her mind.
“What?”
“I asked if you could handle that, and you just stood there staring at me blankly.”
“Yes” Arielle said absently. “Whatever.”
Erik rolled his eyes and turned to Drake. “I’ll watch her until you can finish making arrangements with them. How many do you think would do it?”
“I’ll send my three best.” Drake contemplated aloud. “That way they can take eight-hour shifts and she’ll be covered at all times.”
While they made plans to make sure that she was taken care of, or baby-sat really, Arielle pulled out her phone and sent a text to Danica.
Arielle: My brother is a dick.
The response came almost instantly.
Dani: Yeah, but he’s my dick so be nice.
Arielle snorted, partly in derision and partly from the fact that Dani had so bluntly defended one of her mates.
“You should also get some help,” Erik said to her quietly. “You need to talk to someone about what’s going on. I recognize those looks, the way you flinch away from us.”
Arielle’s eyes darted over to Drake, who was typing something into his phone and then pressed it to his ear and walked out the door.
“I don’t need to,” she snapped. “No one knows what’s going on with me, and no one needs to.”
“I understand,” Erik countered. “But until you find a mate, you’re going to be in danger. You need protection, and if you’re afraid of everything around you it’s going to be hard to live your life.”
“I’m not going to find a mate,” Arielle repeated her thoughts from earlier that night. “I’m not interested in mating or giving away my freedom to anyone else. I’ve lived under someone else’s thumb for long enough.
”
“You’ll change your mind when you meet him,” Erik said with an awkward pat on her shoulder that didn’t scare Arielle as much as she thought it would.
When he left her there, standing in the middle of her living room, Arielle took a deep breath. She was finally alone and able to process everything that had happened. Her brother was wrong.
There was no chance in hell that she’d ever willingly find a mate.
3
Stefan hated Gilcurry. There was too much in the human realm that he couldn’t control. He had absolutely no way of handling situations the way he’d been trained. He made sure to step around two children that should have gone to bed hours ago and continued to stroll the streets of the place he was hesitant to call home.
His phone started to ring in his pocket, and Stefan answered it without thinking. “What?” He barked.
“Well,” Drake laughed into his ear. “That’s some way to greet your king.”
Stefan didn’t even blink. “You haven’t been king long enough to be cocky yet. What’s going on Drake?” He stopped walking, and looked up at the night sky, reluctantly admitting to himself that being able to see the stars was a nice change from the smoke-filled skies of his home.
The crass way he spoke to his king wasn’t out of disrespect. It was born from the fact that Stefan had stood at Drake’s side since they were children. confidants, battle companions. They were best friends for a reason, and Drake knew that no matter what he asked, Stefan would be there for him always.
“I need your opinion on something, and I know you’ll give it to me straight.” Drake’s tone told Stefan that it wasn’t something minor, either.
“What’s going on?”
Knowing that his patrol was likely over, Stefan started walking home through Gilcurry. He enjoyed the quiet around him as he went.
“It’s Arielle,” Drake said. “You know that tonight was her birthday. Well, we got together at the club to celebrate, and someone tried to take her. In the middle of the club, with both Erik and me right there. Hell, even Cass, Ben, and Damon were less than twenty feet away. Of course, they were all surrounding Danica, but still. I couldn’t catch a scent, there were too many bodies.”
“Shit,” Stefan grunted. “You’re not going to be able to keep her safe here. You know that. You’re a king, yes. But they’re not going to obey you just because you say that she’s off limits.”
“I know,” Drake agreed with a strange tone. “But you can.”
“I can what?” Stefan glanced upward again, seeing a shooting star travel across the sky.
Drake kept going, and Stefan wasn’t sure that he was hearing correctly.
“What?” He interrupted, trying to figure out what he’d missed.
“I said,” Drake laughed. “I want you to be part of a team to keep her safe.”
Before Stefan could say anything, Drake kept talking. “I’m serious. I want three men on her at all times. You can rotate shifts, but I want someone to keep her safe here in Gilcurry.”
“Why not just take her home?” Stefan asked, “Isn’t that an option?”
“Not according to her.” Stefan could hear how incredulous his friend was feeling through the line. “I’m not sure exactly what’s wrong, but she said that she’d rather die than go back to the castle. That’s part of why I’m asking you. I trust you more than anyone else in my life, and I know you’ll take care of her. Not just physically, but mentally. There’s something wrong, and I want her to have help. She’s not handling whatever happened in the dragon realm. She’s not healing.”
When he put it like that, there was no way that Stefan would ever say no. Besides, it gave him a way to prove his usefulness here, in Gilcurry.
“I’ll do my best.” He grunted. “But I don’t want to work with the idiots on your personal guard.”
Drake laughed, but it was true. Drake’s guard really were idiots. Their new king shouldn’t even be able to go into the human realm without a group of them, but Drake was constantly alone. He might like that, but it wasn’t the way that Stefan would handle things. That’s probably why Drake hadn’t wanted him to be part of the guard, to be honest.
“Fine,” Drake conceded. “Who do you want?”
“Adam and Matthew.” There was no need to explain further. They were two of the best warriors in the dragon army. Better even, than Damon had been during his time in their ranks. They would put their lives on the line for their king, and they’d work under Stefan without question.
“Why those two?” Drake’s question didn’t surprise Stefan. He knew that the king was protective of his sister, and he’d want to make sure that she was taken care of no matter what.
“You said she needs to heal. Matthew is a therapist. He’s the one your soldiers go to when they’re struggling to handle life. He’s the perfect man to handle her. And we both know there’s never been anyone in the realm that’s better with a weapon than Adam.”
“Done. Round them up and let them know what’s going to happen.” Drake said. “Are you sure that they’ll agree to it, though? I thought that Adam had something happening in the human realm. At least, that’s what my little dragons have told me.”
Stefan rolled his eyes to the sky, trying not to call his friend out for being ridiculous. He failed.
“Drake. You can’t call the random women you pick up your little dragons, it’s not cool. Not to mention it makes you sound like a creep.”
“I can’t help it if they keep talking even after we’re finished.”
Stefan ignored him, especially since Drake was mostly telling the truth. The women he’d surrounded himself with in an attempt to get rid of his feelings for Mary were all the type that chittered. He’d stopped even going out with his friend, because he knew that there was too much of a chance that one of them would be around. Stefan didn’t need that annoyance in his life.
“Adam’s girl, the shifter, left him. He could do with the challenge and the distraction from his personal life, to be honest. Plus, he’s the best one of us with a weapon.” Stefan added the last bit after a moment, knowing that Drake would like to know that if shit hit the fan, his sister would be taken care of.
“Good.” Drake added, “Keep your eyes open. She might not just need to be protected from someone coming after her. I’m worried she’s going to need to be protected from herself.”
When Stefan hung up, he couldn’t help feeling like something was about to go dangerously wrong. The Mad King was called that for a reason, and it was very likely that there was something brewing under the surface that would impact this assignment. Stefan had been there, the day that their king declared a veritable war on Danica and sent all of his men after her. It was harsh, unnecessary, and had done the job that none of his earlier actions had been able to do.
The people lost confidence in a king that didn’t care about a female dragon being mated. He kidnapped her, tried to force her into mating with him, and broke every law that their people held sacred. It was only after that incident their world discovered he’d kept his own daughter prisoner her entire life. Trapped, like some twisted fairytale. Hell, they were dragons, but that didn’t give him the excuse to behave so dismally.
When Stefan unlocked the door to his apartment, he checked the perimeter out of habit. There was so much ingrained into his very DNA from serving in their military, he wouldn’t ever be able to live a normal life. It was after midnight, and though he wanted to sleep work called. Drake would want them to start the assignment as soon as possible.
He threw open the door to Matthew’s room, and the other man immediately sat up with a startled look on his face.
“What do you have to do that shit for? I almost pissed myself.”
“Drake’s got a job for us,” Stefan said without preamble. “We’re going to act as bodyguards for the princess. You, me, and Adam.”
Matthew scoffed. “You’re kidding me, right? There’s no way in hell Adam’s gonna take that job. Especially now th
at Fiona broke his heart.”
Stefan shrugged. “He’ll deal with it. It’s an order from our king.”
“It’s Drake.” Matthew snorted. “Adam’s not gonna care if Drake ordered him into war. What he will have a problem with is the fact that he doesn’t want anything to do with women. Especially a spoiled, entitled, female dragon.”
Stefan grunted, not bothering to defend the girl. She might have been kept by her father, but she was taken care of and never had to work a day in her life. Now that she was living in Gilcurry, it was common knowledge that she didn’t even work. She stayed in her house and went out with Dani and Mary—that’s all. Being female dragons their movements were watched by almost every dragon in Gilcurry, and dragons gossiped worse than old women at the grocery store.
When he turned to leave, Matthew called out to him. “Adam’s not here. He went out drinking earlier. So you’re gonna have to call him if you want to reach him.”
Stefan looked at the closed door that led to Adam’s room in their apartment, and he sighed.
“He really is falling apart, isn’t he?”
“I don’t know what’s going on, man. All I know is that she split, and he hasn’t stopped drinking since it happened.”
“He needs this,” Stefan told Matthew over his shoulder. “Come on. Get dressed and let’s drag him out of whatever hole he’s buried himself in.”
“I’m comfortable,” Matthew whined. “Seriously, you know he’s on the human side of the barrier, which means we can’t even fly there.”
Stefan rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. “You know you want to get a drink. So get on with it already.”
Five minutes later, they were both dressed and walking out the door.
“You owe me for this shit,” Matthew grumbled. “I didn’t need to help get him. You could have done this all on your own. Or better yet, let him stumble in drunk as hell and then force him to take the assignment when he’s got a hangover.”
Using Her Dragons: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Omega Book 3) Page 2
