Dragon Protectors: Shifter Romance Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  Eden had forgotten how much she loved the forest, since most of her focus had been on the water as of late. She breathed in the scent of the fauna and the earth, already feeling more at ease than she had in the past forty-eight hours. Her fingertips brushed across the trunks of trees as she passed them, plucking leaves here and there as she did so. Once she took in the forest, she finally began to battle out her thoughts one by one, no matter how exhausting they were at that point.

  Hours ticked by, and Eden was becoming more frustrated than she had wanted. Every time she told herself that she had to accept her fate, even more resistance would spark in her chest. Why did she have to accept it? None of her brothers were being forced to marry someone they didn’t want to “for the good of the Kingdom.” She knew it was because she was the lone daughter of the King, and it felt completely medieval to her. Couldn’t there be better solutions than forcing her into a loveless marriage? Would the people of the Kingdom really honor a bond that much? How would it stop rebellions from occurring?

  Because they would think the might of the Crown is too grand to go against, Eden realized.

  Darian was a warrior, but he was also one of the people. Nearly everyone looked up to him, seeing him as a fierce and unwavering symbol of the Kingdom’s inhabitants. Marrying him would actually be a significant event in the Kingdom. Those who questioned the Crown but looked up to Darian, as well as those like him, would fall into line out of respect—and also fear.

  Eden wasn’t naïve to the reputation Darian had when it came to fighting. He was ruthless in battle, almost bordering on cruel. All he cared about was winning, and he was willing to put his body on the line in order to achieve that. It was an attribute that dragonbornes held higher than anything else.

  Logically, Eden knew that it was a smart political move. Emotionally, she couldn’t care less about finding her soulmate. So why on Earth was she fighting it so intensely? Was it just because her hand was being forced into it? Would she have potentially said yes if her father had given her a say in the proposal? While that bothered her, it didn’t entirely explain her full-bodied resistance. There was something strange about Darian that Eden couldn’t shake. Something… fake about him. He felt dangerous, even though he would know better than to ever harm a hair on her head, or else he would feel the wrath of Carlyle.

  The sky was pitch black as Eden continued to saunter through the trees, at war with herself. She was starting to realize that perhaps she wouldn’t make peace with this decision, and she would begrudgingly be forced down the aisle and into a life that she did not want. Would there be a rhyme or reason to her resistance? Would it one day be clear that there was a purpose behind her inability to find peace? She hoped so. She hoped that the answer to the entire mystery was to come, and that all of her supposed pouting and brewing would have a purpose. The answer at that point, however, was totally in the dark.

  The sound of snapping twigs came from nearby. No, snapping branches. Eden looked all around, wondering what on Earth had caused it. Perhaps it would have been wiser for her to run back to the estate and gather others to check out the sound in the woods, but she could hold her own. Without a second thought, Eden ran in the direction of the sound, soon hearing a massive thump.

  As she came through a clearing, Eden slowed her pace, knowing she needed to be cautious and not just run into the middle of something without knowing just how dangerous it was.

  Peering from behind a tree, she saw a dragon lying on the forest floor. It was one of the largest dragons she had ever seen, rivaling her father and her brother Sebastian in size, if not bigger. Its scales were an alluring dark green, reminding Eden of sleek mossy rocks after a storm. It was lying on its side and appeared to be passed out.

  Eden inched closer, trying to get a better look. Had it flown for too long and fallen from exhaustion? As she neared, she soon realized that wasn’t the case. Covering the width of the dragon’s chest was a nasty burn, already crusting black and bleeding rather heavily.

  “Oh, no, oh, no,” Eden murmured, rushing to its side. She inspected the trauma, noticing many lacerations and wounds from the fall. Her eyes then went to the sky, hoping to spot whoever had done this to the poor dragon. She saw nothing.

  Springing into action, Eden shifted into her dragon state, silvery lavender scales covering her body. While most females, as dragons, were only marginally different from the males, Eden was on the slender side. Still, she had just as much strength and speed as any of the others. Nuzzling the dragon to get it to move with her, Eden managed to lift it onto her back. She mentally cursed Darian and her father, knowing that because of them, she wasn’t at her best in terms of healing. Regardless, she was going to do everything she could to nurse the dragon back to health and hopefully get to the bottom of what had happened to it.

  Soaring into the sky, Eden hugged the tops of the trees so she would stay out of sight, knowing that whoever had attacked the dragon could still be lingering nearby. Flying to the estate took only minutes, no more than fifteen, despite her walking about for hours. Going to her balcony, Eden awkwardly but carefully sat the dragon down and morphed back into her human state. Leaving it on the balcony, she rushed into her room and pulled on a new set of clothes before returning for the beast. As gingerly as Eden possibly could, she dragged it into the room. The dragon dominated the center of the room, especially since it was sprawled out.

  Eden didn’t miss a beat, closing the balcony door and drawing the curtains before going to the dragon and positioning her hands in the air above its chest. Closing her eyes, she did her best to empty her head of the rushing thoughts that invaded it. It took several minutes, but she eventually found enough of her center to finally feel her hands cool.

  It’s working! Eden thought ecstatically. She tried not to get distracted over the excitement of it and keep her focus on healing the poor beast. She had never had to heal anything as large as the burn in front of her. Since the war with the witches had fallen cold centuries ago, the most real-life practice Eden had had were small scrapes and burns from her brother Theo sparring with his friends.

  Eventually, Eden opened her eyes to check the progress she was making. Several layers of skin had healed, but there were still a few to go. An immense sense of pride consumed her. Many had told her in modern times, without war, that there wasn’t a need for her to study healing in the way that she did. This was proof that Eden was doing the right thing by sticking with it.

  Crap! she cursed to herself. She had lost her focus, allowing herself to drift into smug thoughts. That was all right—the bulk of the damage had been erased already. Eden fluttered about her bedroom to gather materials to finish patching the dragon up. Even if she wasn’t consciously aware of it, she was selfishly relieved that she had come across the wounded dragon. It had served as a much-needed distraction to get her out of her own head, which she had been imprisoned in for days on end.

  When Eden turned around to go back to her patient, she witnessed the body beginning to transition back into its human state—into his human state. A bright blush broke out over Eden’s face, and she exited the room briefly, crossing into Asher’s room, since he wasn’t home. Then she snatched a few articles of his clothing before returning to the shifter. He was still passed out on her rug, causing her to let out a sigh of relief. She set upon the task of dressing the unconscious man before heaving him into her bed so that he could rest comfortably.

  If Father knew about this… Oh, to hell with her father. She was doing a noble deed.

  For the next couple of hours, Eden cleaned each of the wounds on the shifter, down to the tiny scratches on his hands. She noticed some of the scars he had weren’t fresh, causing her brow to furrow. Who was this man? She didn’t recognize him as one of her father’s warriors, though, admittedly, the warriors those days were more like the reserves than an active service.

  As Eden patted a cut on the man’s brow with a cotton ball, she noticed just how handsome he was. Dark brown hair that w
as straight but disheveled, olive skin, chiseled bone structure. He wasn’t one of the dragons from the western region of Europe, that was for sure. Roman, perhaps? Eden didn’t know many dragons from that region. She continued to clean him up as she stayed lost in thought, lost in the act of caring for someone else.

  5

  The world was a blur. Everything before Levi’s eyes were disfigured, blurry shapes. Levi blinked slowly, trying to get things to come into focus. His hearing was muffled, unable to piece together or make sense out of anything around him. His entire body ached, giving him resistance when it came to lifting his head to see what was going on, or where he was. His eyes scanned about, trying to get any clues from his immediate environment.

  That was when he saw her.

  The entire world was out of focus, but she was sharp and perfectly defined. Paisley blue eyes, creamy, unblemished skin, waterfalls of auburn hair framing a perfectly heart-shaped face… She was unreal, the embodiment of perfection. There was a warm glow about her that made him want to fall into her and never get up. It all led him to a pointed question.

  “Are you an angel?” he croaked.

  The woman snorted and let out a stifled chuckle, “Hardly.”

  The ungraceful way she answered caused his brows to knit together in confusion. If he wasn’t dead, and she wasn’t there to guide him into the light, then where was he, and who was she? Pressing an elbow into the mattress, Levi started to prop himself up.

  “Hey, hey, take it easy there,” she fussed, gently pushing his shoulders back down. “You’re going to want to take your time getting up, all right? You had several blows to the head.”

  “Sounds about right,” he grumbled. That sounded about right for any day of the week to him, actually.

  “What happened to you?” the woman asked, sounding attentive. Her voice had a slight rasp to it, like a jazz singer, but all the sweetness of honey. Levi’s eyes fluttered closed. Had he hit his head that hard? Why was he romanticizing everything about a woman he was just meeting?

  “Ah, well, the usual. Was taking a walk and a couple of scrappy shifters came up on me. If it hadn’t been three against one, I assure you I wouldn’t be the one you’re doctoring up.” His eyes returned to her face, feeling a sharp pang in his heart. Why was he so thankful that he was the one in that gorgeous woman’s presence? Beautiful women were a dime a dozen these days, and it wasn’t as if Levi had ever struggled to get some company for a night. There was something so very… different about the woman in front of him. Or was it him that was different? Did that even make sense? Levi was seriously beginning to wonder if he really had hit his head too hard this time.

  “Three against one? That’s not very fair.”

  “What is war ever fair?” he asked with a chuckle.

  “War?”

  “That was an exaggeration,” Levi amended, but it was the most he would clarify his statement. He was too captivated by her to think about his enemies. Only… the more he came to and the fog in his head subsided, he realized who exactly it was he was looking at. It was the daughter of Carlyle Tallant.

  Levi took another glance around the room, that time being able to see the luxurious architecture and décor. He was in the palace.

  The realization that he was in the belly of the beast should have made him want to run for the hills, but he didn’t feel even slightly bothered by the fact. Not right then, at least. Not while he was in the presence of… What was her name again? Evelyn, Edith, Eva… Something with an E.

  Eden. What a perfect name.

  “How are you feeling?” Eden asked him. “I tried to heal you the best I could, and the rest, I’ve been cleaning and bandaging up for you.”

  Glancing down, Levi saw his chest bandaged. It was only then that the events leading up to his crash fully came back to him. Flying around, trying to escape the three warriors, the blistering pain, the sound of snapping wood, then blackness. Levi blinked rapidly and composed himself before giving her a soft but pearly smile. “I feel fine. Thank you for patching me up.”

  “Well, of course. I wasn’t going to just leave you there in the middle of the forest by yourself, and injured, on top of that. I don’t think I could have lived with myself.”

  Levi’s heart skyrocketed at that statement. Did that mean Eden was feeling the allure between them as well? Levi should have been thinking to himself how absurd and complicated it was for him to be feeling anything at all for the daughter of his enemy, but he wasn’t. He was thinking about how adorable her sloped nose was, how her eyes reminded him of the Caribbean waters that he wanted so badly to dive into, and that the feeling brought on by being in her presence wasn’t going away.

  Then he noticed that Eden wasn’t looking at him closely just because of his wounds. She was looking in his eyes and down at his lips, puzzled and curious herself. Oh, she definitely felt it, too.

  “What’s… your name?” she asked softly, her head tilting slightly to one side.

  “Levi,” he introduced himself. Just as he felt brave enough to reach for her hand, Eden jerked away from him as if he had announced he was Lucifer, the Lord of Hell.

  On her feet, she shook her head and paced several steps away from him. “You… you can’t be Levi. You can’t be Levi and be in my room, in the family estate.”

  Geesh, denial was instantaneous with this one, wasn’t it? “The one and only. At least, I think. Haven’t heard of another dragon shifter named Levi.”

  “You’re a rogue. What were you doing so close to the family grounds?” Eden demanded to know. Her tone of voice took Levi by surprise, and he did his best not to smile at it, knowing it would only enrage her more. Eden sounded like she was scolding an old friend for doing something foolish, not an enemy of the family. Even as she denied her own intuition, they were on the same page.

  “As I said, I was running from some guys. I must not have paid attention to which direction I was going and wound up nearby.”

  “Well,” Eden said, “that’s simply idiotic for someone with a status such as yours.”

  Levi cocked a brow at her. “Status? Do you think I care about my status?”

  “Oh, you know what I mean. Even in nature, animals don’t wander near their natural enemies’ dens. You practically waltzed into this one.”

  “Although I don’t remember how exactly I got in here, reasonable deduction causes me to believe that you carried me in here.” Oh, if looks could kill, Levi would have been struck with lightning by the heavens at that very moment. He couldn’t fight back the smirk that demanded to be on his lips. “It’s sweet that you already care so much about me, though.”

  “Already? What are you talking about?” Eden questioned as she crossed her arms over her chest.

  Levi took a moment to truly study her and drink her in, along with the situation he was finding himself in. Just that afternoon, he had been trying to sneak out of his ill mother’s house to return to his lone cabin in the woods and remain in his forced isolation—only to be hunted down by Carlyle Tallant’s men and wind up in his daughter’s bed. Albeit, it wasn’t sexual at the time being, but the irony of it all was not lost on Levi. Fate had crash-landed him into the presence of his soulmate.

  “We make quite the peculiar pair, don’t we?”

  “I have no earthly idea what you’re talking about,” Eden dismissed. She was shaking her head vehemently and turning away from him. But she was no fool. She knew just as well as he did that they were soulmates. It was an instant connection once you met your “one.” If Levi could feel it, she could feel it as well. Under the circumstances, however, he knew that it was probably going to take some time for it to fully sink in. After all, Levi was the most wanted man in the Kingdom.

  6

  Eden didn’t want to listen to anything the insane man was saying. In what reality were they a “pair” of any sort? Sure, Levi was an attractive man, and his golden-brown eyes were so striking that she could have gotten weak in the knees if she hadn’t been sitting
down. Being attracted to someone was far distant than… than… being destined to them. She couldn’t stop shaking her head in defiance.

  “No… no. You’ve suffered a head injury, and I’ve had all of six hours of sleep in the past three days. There’s a clear and logical explanation for it all.”

  “So you do feel it, too,” Levi announced, sounding proud of himself.

  Eden whipped her head around to stare daggers into him. “I feel nothing but confusion at this point. Here I was, just trying to be a good Samaritan and help out someone in need, and now I have a fugitive of the Kingdom in my bedroom.”

  He gave a weak shrug. “You know what they say, fate and destiny have a plan—you do not.”

  “What a load of garbage,” Eden grumbled. She paced across the room and sat down on her lounge with her head in her hands. She told herself again and again that she just needed sleep, or that maybe she already was, and this entire thing was a dream. The sensation in her chest felt so real, though. As soon as Levi had opened his eyes and regained consciousness, it was like there was a magnet turned on in her chest, and he held the other half of that magnet. It made no sense. Eden should be repelled by him, with all she had heard of the infamous Levi the First Rogue.

  She heard feet coming across the hardwood floor, but Eden did not lift her head. Levi sat down next to her and very cautiously looped an arm around her back. Eden stayed locked into place, not shrugging him off but not giving into his touch, either. He stared down at her, and Eden realized that his eyes weren’t golden brown; they were actually yellow. It was subtle but so clear in the light they were in.

  Levi’s face grew nearer, and Eden held her breath. Levi hovered there, not speaking as he studied her up close. “I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable, but I am trying to test whatever… this feeling is. And I think you know exactly what I’m talking about,” he whispered when he finally spoke.