Dragon Protectors: Shifter Romance Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  Titus was immediately defensive. “It’s my company we’re talking about,” he reminded her, but she shook her head, hiding her fair cheeks behind a mop of curls.

  “I mean, I shouldn’t be telling you about the stuff I’ve done,” she mumbled.

  His face burned with anger.

  “Really? You think I’m going to turn you in?” he snapped, and her head jerked up, fear coloring her irises.

  “I wasn’t thinking that until you just said it,” she whispered, her skin almost opaque with fear.

  Confusion flashed through him. “I don’t understand, then. Why shouldn’t you tell me?”

  “If the police question you, I don’t want you to lie for me,” Bella replied quietly. “That’s all I meant.” She stared at him, her brows knitting in worry. “Is that why you got me out of jail? To find information for the police?”

  Titus laughed shakily and pulled her into his body, but he could feel the tension in her spine.

  “We need to try something new now,” he said, kissing the top of her head.

  “Like what?”

  “Like trusting one another a little bit,” he answered. “If we keep looking at each other with suspicion, we’re not going to get anything accomplished.”

  Bella pulled back slightly and looked at him. “None of this makes sense to me,” she blurted out. “I don’t understand how you seemingly came from nowhere and rescued me during one of the scariest times in of my life.”

  “I know,” he sighed. “And nothing I can say will make sense to you, Bella, but you have to believe me. I am on your side. There is nothing I want more than to keep you safe and for you to put whatever hell Skylar Vernon put you through way behind you.”

  “How do you know he put me through anything?” she asked him.

  Titus was taken aback by the question. Indeed, how do I know? For all I know, she could have been the mastermind behind the entire operation. She did hijack a plane, after all. Who knows what she’s capable of?

  But he did know. He knew the woman sitting before him, he recognized the fear and worry in her surreal emerald eyes. She might not be the same person he had known all those years ago in Misty Woods, but Isabella’s soul resided in Arabella’s body. He would have bet his life upon it if he could.

  “I know you,” he answered simply. “I know your heart and soul.”

  “How?” Bella whispered. “How do you know me?”

  “You’re my fated mate.”

  The response seemed to knock the wind from her, but she didn’t dispute his assessment. Her eyes filled with tears, and she shook her head.

  “I thought he was some visionary,” she said, “some political activist who cared about the people. He fooled all of us.” Titus listened without interrupting. “He found me in San Francisco, living in a box, literally. He didn’t know anything about me, but he took me into his place and fed me, bought me some clothes. I had never met anyone so selfless before.”

  She laughed mirthlessly. “Little did I know that he had done the same thing with dozens of us, all over the world. He took in us stray dogs to groom us into what he wanted.”

  Titus felt a stab of anger pierce his heart.

  “Listen to me blaming that jackass for my decisions,” Bella said. “I was a grown woman, I knew better… but everything he said was just what I needed to hear.” A long sigh escaped her lips, and she raised her head again, shaking her head in shame. “Anyway, everything I did, I did thinking it was for another reason. If I knew he was going to steal money from the reserve…”

  She didn’t need to finish her sentence. Her words were confirmation of what Titus had believed about her all along.

  “Why don’t you just tell the police what they want to know about Skylar?” he asked curiously, knowing that there had to be a good explanation for it. And I bet it has everything to do with loyalty.

  “Don’t you see?” she asked almost imploringly. “If I sell out Skylar, it means everyone else will be exposed, too. I have no idea how many names they have, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to be the one to send the police on the trails of people who aren’t even on the radar.”

  A surge of pride swept through Titus, and he snatched her back into a tight embrace, dropping kisses along the crown of her head.

  “We’re going to get him,” he promised. “He is going to pay for his crimes.”

  “I hope so,” Bella murmured without conviction, but Titus had never been surer of anything in his life.

  We are going to find him, and he is going to confess to everything, Titus thought with renewed determination. Even if I have to scare the shit out of him to do it.

  After all, what was the point of having dragon genes if he couldn’t use them to fight crime once in a while?

  12

  She ran through castle’s stone corridor, her skirts swirling around her ankles. At each turn, she half expected to encounter one of the guards or the princes.

  Or perhaps Titus.

  I must be free of this place before the curse falls upon our heads, she thought, her heart hammering furiously in her chest. A headdress threatened to fall from her mass of curls, the long braid at her back falling into disarray as she stole into the shadows, her ears trained for sounds of footfalls. If Titus catches me, he will insist I stay, but I cannot allow for it to happen. I must hide away until whatever Opal has planned has passed.

  The sound of armor clanking in the distance caused her to turn and flee toward the rear entrance of the castle. She wondered briefly if she was making a mistake.

  No! she told herself firmly. We should not succumb to the evils of a sorceress. What will her curse do to us, to the kingdom?

  She did not understand how Titus and the others could have allowed for such treachery into the secured walls of the castle. They must be terrified, or they would not have agreed to such risk.

  She hurried toward the fortress walls through the courtyard, but as she neared the towering stone, she saw the guards, preparing for the impending attack. Would the curse reach beyond the walls of the castle? How far would it go? What had they agreed to?

  She had no answer, no experience with such things. All she knew was that she must leave the castle and get as far away as possible.

  She wished she had thought to tell the other women, thinking of the small innocent faces of the children she had tried so desperately to comfort during the hours of terror when the battles raged on below.

  But if she ventured beyond the barriers, she might walk into a Northman trap.

  No, she decided. I know Misty Woods better than any of those barbaric seamen. I can find a safe haven until the battle is won, and then I will return to Titus.

  First, she needed to elude the guards. She had to keep moving before she was detected and returned to the women and children in the turret.

  Again, her bejeweled headdress slipped along her soft mane of hair, and she readjusted it, whirling back toward the castle and into its bowels to find her escape.

  Oh, Titus, she moaned silently. Please do something to end this, to stop Opal. Nothing good can come of a curse from an embittered witch, I am certain of that!

  She paused to stare into the flickering of the torch-lit dungeons, the sound of ethereal moaning meeting her ears. Slowly, she drew toward the noises, her pulse racing as she realized what she was looking at.

  The prisoners! The Northmen prisoners!

  “Help us!” they chanted at her, reaching through the iron bars to reach for her pleadingly. “Water! Food! Help us!”

  Gasping, she spun, running in the opposite direction, trying to block their horrendous cries from her ears. Through the dark she fumbled, pausing to grab a torch as she finally found what she was seeking: the doorway to the underground tunnel, leading away from the castle.

  She paused again, her mind awhirl with confusion.

  I cannot leave Titus here! I should find him and convince him to leave with me before it is too late!

  But a small voice warned h
er that it was already too late. She had to run. She had to go.

  She slipped through the creaking wooden door, a dozen rats scurrying away in fright as she ran through a pool of stagnant water toward safety.

  Or death.

  There was no time for her to rethink her plan, the distance between her and the castle growing with each sloshing step she took. How far was it until she reached the other side? Would she emerge a cursed woman? There were no answers to her questions, and all she could do was keep moving, the filthy water seeping into her mutton boots, the torch in her hand her only beacon of hope.

  The stench of the corridor was nearly unbearable, but she forced herself not to look as she continued toward the end, not knowing what horrors she might see if she dared stray her eyes from the path before her.

  You are moments from freedom, she promised herself. You must keep moving.

  She prayed silently for guidance, and soon, her persistence was rewarded as she found herself staring at the glimmering of moonlit water beyond.

  When she splashed from the tunnel and into the chilly, still night, she looked about expectantly. She waited for the call of a guard or the sound of an arrow aimed for her back. There was nothing but silence and the tall, majestic trees of Misty Woods looming above her head in their ancient wisdom.

  She turned her head to stare behind in the direction from which she had come, relief flooding her chest as she realized she was beyond the walls, the castle looming in the distance.

  I must find a place to hide, she thought, climbing onto the banks of the muddy stream, cautiously watching for Northmen. She would lose herself in the trees, perhaps finding a cave or—

  A bloodcurdling shriek filled her ears, a sound she had never heard in her eighteen years of life. As if directed by an unseen hand, her green eyes traveled upward, a hand flying to her mouth in shock.

  Above her head flew seven massive beasts, each in colors which did not exist in nature, a stunning display of iridescent pastels.

  Bats, she initially thought with naïve innocence. They are only large bats.

  Puffs of smoke escaped their huge, lizard-like skulls, their amber eyes glowing brighter than the coals of a long-burning fire. More squeals escaped their mouths, jutting, forked tongues darting forward as two swooped low toward the forest where she stood, a long line of fire spewing forth.

  And she knew they were not bats at all.

  Run! You must run!

  She wrenched her gaze from the horrific sight of the demons sent from the pits of hell and clawed her way into the woods, tears streaming down her face.

  Titus! she screamed, knowing that one of the ungodly monsters was the man she had once loved so much. Titus, come back for me!

  But as she cowered in fear, she knew that even if she managed to survive the spray of fire being unleashed around her, Titus was lost to her forever. And when the blue-grey dragon appeared overhead, his jaws unhinging to cast her hiding spot into a raging inferno, she wondered if her lover, her mate, the man she had adored since girlhood, was the one bringing her life to such a cruel and abrupt end.

  She sat up with a start and looked around, half expecting to be engulfed in flames. But Ara was alone, sitting in the garage where Titus had left her working online while he went into Port Elizabeth to deal with something.

  That dream, she thought, pulling her body upright against the swivel chair. I haven’t had that dream in years.

  It was a reoccurring theme: the princess running away from the castle, stealing away through the tunnels until the dragons came and wiped out everyone. But in the past, she had never known her lover’s name in the dream.

  You’re just adding shit to the dream now because you met Titus, she told herself with annoyance, righting herself. Still, she couldn’t help but feel that she was facing some danger, that the dream was trying to warn her. Or maybe it’s because you’re living in a castle and living with a prince, she thought, shaking her head.

  Music piped through the old-school boom box on the table, and Ara rubbed her tired eyes. She had fallen asleep on the keyboard, but that was unsurprising.

  For three days, she had worked tirelessly, trying to get in contact with any of the others, putting out cryptic messages in the obscure chatrooms they had used in the past.

  “It will take time,” Ara told Titus, who seemed disappointed by the lack of communication. “Everyone is laying low, and I can’t tell where they are now. I can only assume that they’ve left South Africa already.”

  “They may not trust you,” he replied bluntly, and she nodded in agreement.

  “I can’t blame them,” she said. “If one of them was looking for me, I don’t know if I would reach out to them, either.”

  “You would.”

  “What makes you say so?”

  “Because you’re worried about them. That’s how I know they’re going to reach out to you, too.”

  Ara cocked her head to the side. “How?”

  “You said yourself,” Titus answered. “Skylar picked people just like you. He preyed on your kindness and desire to do good. That’s going to be his downfall in the end.”

  Ara wished she shared his optimism. Even if she did manage to find the others, that did not mean they would lead her to Skylar. He probably had an entirely new team of unsuspecting idiots right now. He had probably had them waiting in the wings for when he set them all up for the reserve job. How could they all have been so stupid?

  But there was no time for self-pity and “what if” scenarios. She had far too much on the line to waste precious seconds wallowing in her inability to see the worst in people.

  Am I refusing to see the worst in Titus, too? Ara wondered, the dragon dream flooding back to her. What if that dream is a warning that he is trying to hurt you? Instantly, she was ashamed of herself. You didn’t suspect Skylar, the man who threw you under the bus, but you think Titus is a demon from hell. The wires in your brain are all crossed. You need professional help.

  Sighing, Ara turned back to monitor the chat rooms. She wished Titus had not gone into Port Elizabeth, or that at least she had gone with him. He had not left her side since they had left the hotel, and she felt lonely without him.

  “I promise, this is a small matter,” he told her.

  “Is it Skylar again?” she demanded, her eyes wide.

  Titus chuckled. “No, no,” he assured her. “Nothing to do with that. Believe it or not, I do have other matters to deal with at the office, things I can’t do remotely. Sometimes I have to actually put a pen to paper and show my signature so that people don’t think I’m an AI.”

  “All right,” she agreed, offering him a weak smile. “Want me to come with you?”

  “I think it’s best that you stay here,” he replied slowly, shaking his head. “I wasn’t completely forthcoming with you the day I brought you to Port Elizabeth.”

  “Why? What happened? Is it because of Trina?”

  “Partially,” he conceded, exhaling deeply. “But I am not supposed to let you off the compound. It violates your bail agreement. Anders gave me a blast of shit for that.”

  “What? You said it was fine!” she squeaked. “I would never have gone with you if I had known!”

  “I thought it was okay, too,” he said. “It’s no big deal.”

  “How did Anders know?” Ara asked, horrified.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Titus told her, giving her a small kiss on the mouth. “Everything is fine, I promise.”

  Like the magic his touch was to her, she melted against him, allowing his embrace to overcome her worries. But now that she was alone again, still plagued by that stupid nightmare, she wondered if he was only trying to put her mind at ease.

  Sighing, Ara peered hopefully at the screen again, knowing that nothing had changed from before her nap. She was hungry, and her body was stiff from falling asleep in the chair.

  I’ll go grab a snack from the kitchen and stretch my legs. Hell, maybe I’ll even go for a swim. There are
worse places to be under house arrest, she decided, rising.

  Before she could move, a message appeared on the board before her.

  Ara gasped, lunging forward to rest her fingers over the keyboard as she read.

  His burning eye will see me through.

  Her mind raced, blinking as she struggled to think. It’s Jasper, she recalled. What song is that? She stared at it, trying to conjure the lyrics in her head.

  “African Night Flight!” she bellowed suddenly, exhaling in relief. She laughed shakily.

  Jasper had gotten out of South Africa.

  Did you follow her to a bridge by a fountain? he had added.

  Come on, get the reference? Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Ara typed. Where is Skylar? Is he with you?

  Sick of you, sick of me.

  “No!” she cried. “Come on, Jasper. Tell me where he is!” Her fingertips flew over the keyboard, channeling her inner Sam Cooke.

  It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die ‘cause I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky…

  She stared at the screen, silently willing Jasper to answer, but he didn’t.

  “Goddamn it!” Ara cursed, flopping back against the chair. At least she knew that Jasper was safe and out of the country.

  But they were still back to square one. She was no closer to finding Skylar than she had been three days ago, and Ara could not shake the feeling that time was not on their side.

  13

  The spot was both beautiful and dangerous, depending on who you were.

  For example, Titus often stood on the peak point of the Humewood Extension where it plunged into the blue waters of the Indian Ocean, marveling at the stunning beauty of the spot he had chosen to live his life.

  South Africa was as big a piece of his heart as any place he had ever lived in. He had watched it grow from an ancient, tribal country into a haven for diamond searchers, eventually becoming the business center and ethnic hubbub of the continent.