Claimed by the Dragon King (High House Draconis Book 5)

by Riley Storm

  Claimed

  by the

  Dragon King

  High House Draconis Book 5

  Riley Storm

  Claimed by the Dragon King

  Copyright© 2019 Riley Storm

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic means, without written permission from the author. The sole exception is for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.

  All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.

  Edited by Annie Jenkinson, Just Copyeditors

  Cover Designs by Kasmit Covers

  Contents

  Note from the Author

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  Other Books by Riley Storm

  About the Author

  Note from the Author

  Hi there!

  Thank you so much for picking up Claimed by the Dragon King. While this book and series are self-contained and can be read alone, if you want to get the full experience of the Plymouth Falls world, you would be best off starting with the High House Ursa series and book one, Bearing Secrets which is linked below.

  Either way, I hope you enjoy!

  -Riley Storm

  High House Ursa

  Bearing Secrets

  Furever Loyal

  Mated to the Enemy

  Shifting Alliances

  Blood Bearon

  1

  “Begin.”

  Her voice was strong, confident, and her body language conveyed the same message to the circle of men and women around her.

  Kyla Langston wasn’t afraid of them. Not one bit.

  All around her, red and green light blossomed into existence, casting wild patterns across the massive domed room within which they all stood. Twelve members of the Mages Guild stood arrayed around her at even intervals.

  Some of them, she knew, were nervous about the test, and some were eager. She’d purposely chosen the mix. Kyla needed some who would not hold back in their attempts to break her, who would take great pleasure in inflicting harm on her.

  There were a great many who felt that way, so it hadn’t been hard to find volunteers.

  Her staff lifted and fell with a precise tap as the first bolt of red magic lanced in at her from the side. A circle of green appeared in the path of the attacking magic and stopped it cold. Kyla countered two more in quick succession, letting her brain go free, merging with the wild of the magic, feeling the attacks as they came, countering each of them.

  Taking on twelve mages was a new feat for her, and despite her outward appearance, Kyla wasn’t sure how it would go. She’d held off a full ten mages for half an hour during her last attempt nearly six months ago. Now she was adding two more.

  The attacks came fast and furious now, flashing in from all sides. The bottom of her staff, cased in copper, tapped a furious rhythm on the stone floor, occasionally sending up sparks as she fell deeper into the magic itself.

  Though her eyes were closed and she couldn’t see it, her senses told her that the green was beginning to coalesce around her as she slowly fed magic into her shield. Instead of fading after every attack, her blocking spells remained in place, giving the other mages fewer and fewer places to launch their spells as the gaps filled.

  In a short period of time, she was encased in an oval egg of green shielding magic. The attacks from outside glanced off.

  Something slammed into the rear of her shield with astonishing force. Kyla stumbled and cracks appeared in her shell. Caught off-guard by the strength of the attack, her protective bubble nearly failed.

  Nearly.

  Kyla was a member of the Mage Council. The youngest member, by several decades. At only thirty-nine she was a prodigy of magic, and her strength only continued to build as she trained.

  She wasn’t about to succumb that quickly.

  Spinning, she eyed her attacker, absently pushing more magic into her protective layer. Smoky gray eyes landed on a thirteenth figure in the circle.

  Male, perhaps thirty years older than her, though he looked to be in his fifties at best. A long robe of deep red encased the slim figure, barely revealing his hands and face. He stared at her with open disdain.

  Morak.

  She smiled at him and waved, giving him an obnoxious smile. Morak was an ass-kisser to the ultimate degree, and he had assumed because of his constant sucking-up to the other mages on the Council that when a position opened, he would be appointed by default.

  Unfortunately for Morak, very rarely did the Council simply appoint a replacement mage. His brown-nosing hadn’t been enough to convince them to bring him on board, so he had been forced to participate in the Challenge, like every other mage who wished to gain the spot.

  Her smile wasn’t received well. A reminder that she had won the Challenge, and he had bowed out in the second-to-last round, before they had even had a chance to meet. She was on the Council now, a veritable phenomenon, and he was reduced back to sucking up to the others.

  Morak lashed out again. Green magic met green magic, but this time she held.

  The other members had ceased their attacks. That wasn’t what she wanted. Kyla’s staff rose and fell, and red tendrils of magic lashed out at the other twelve mages, reminding them that the test wasn’t over yet.

  About half countered the unexpected attack. The other half were hit, ranging from stumbling back onto one knee as they absorbed the hit, to one unfortunate fellow being caught completely unawares and tumbling back over himself twice before coming to a stop.

  “Resume!” she shouted.

  Enraged by her attacks, the other mages lashed out at her. Morak followed, his blows hitting the hardest.

  “Simply protecting yourself isn’t good enough!” he shouted, hammering her with another green blast.

  Kyla stumbled a step. Morak was strong. Very strong. He’d lost not because of his weakness, but because of his arrogance, his overconfidence. His opponent had used that against him and won.

  “You have no idea what I’m trying to achieve here,” she shot back, tired of Morak’s ‘offense is the first, last, and the only way’ strategy.

  It was all too typical of a lot of older non-council mages. They wanted to bull their way through, blasting aside anything that slowed them.

  Of course, those on the Council are the exact opposite. They want to attack nothing, and avoid everything. Why can’t there be balance!

  Her irritation flowed into the magic, and she struck out again, green energy hitting a trio of the mages arrayed at her. They collapsed, and a moment later one of them b
egan snoring.

  The other mages arrayed around her took notice of this, and realized it was on for real now. Attacks hammered home from every direction, and Morak continued to force her to focus on him.

  Kyla had more tricks up her sleeve though. She turned, biding her time. Waiting for the right moment. The right bit of—now!

  She dropped her shield and slipped to the ground. Morak’s neon-green strike blew right through where her head had been, continued past, and took one of the other mages in the chest, hurtling him back across the chamber.

  Kyla was up and her shield flicking back into existence before he came to a halt.

  Morak, enraged by her manipulation, came on strong now. Both fists hurled energy at her. It grew brighter, and brighter. The other mages backed off, not sure of what was going on, and yet all too aware of the dislike between the two masters.

  Then Morak screwed up. He let his rage slip too far.

  A flash of blue left his right fist, hitting her shield. The blue spread through the solid green, separating it into shards, and then collapsing it.

  The other students all gasped.

  Blue magic was forbidden to be used except in the direst of circumstances. A staged practice inside the academy was anything but that.

  Morak paused, realizing his error.

  Kyla didn’t give him time to do anything else. Her staff lifted clear of the floor and she thrust it at Morak. Green energy spiraled up from the base and shot from the tip. The torrent of magic was wider than her leg. It picked Morak up and flung him across the chamber, pinning him to the wall.

  “How dare you use such a spell on me!” she bellowed, her voice amplified by her magic, carrying to all corners of the practice dome and echoing back, giving her a mighty roar. “You would strike at a Council Member with blue magic?”

  Morak was looking around wildly. He had screwed up, and screwed up bad.

  Several of the other mages, those who disliked her the most came at her from one side, casting their own spells, the shock of the moment worn off. Kyla casually thrust her right hand toward them, palm upward. A red spell tore through the green, splitting into three and striking each of the arrogant mages in the chest.

  They fell to the ground, their muscles locked to their sides, stiff as a board.

  She gestured with her staff and the green energy surrounded Morak and sent him hurtling back across the chamber to come to a halt in midair around her.

  “Why are you here?” she snapped, done playing games.

  Morak was strong. She was stronger. Kyla was done letting him think it was even close.

  The proud mage struggled fiercely, but he wasn’t getting out unless she told him.

  “He’s here because I sent him.”

  Kyla straightened and dropped the spell encasing Morak.

  “Archmage,” she said respectfully, bowing her head and bending a knee.

  “What is going on here?” asked the Archmage of the Guild, the most powerful mage in the world.

  “I was testing out a new shield design,” she said, straightening her back.

  Kyla gave the Archmage the respect his position was due, though she didn’t share the same feeling toward the man who occupied the spot as head of all mages.

  “How did it work?”

  “Splendidly,” she said with a smile.

  “Very good.” The Archmage looked at the others in the chamber. “Out.”

  Uh oh.

  The mages scrambled to obey, hauling their sleeping or spellbound companions out as fast as they could.

  The Archmage glanced at Morak. “You too.”

  Sullenly the other mage left the chamber, until it was just the two of them.

  “Did you really have to humiliate him like that Kyla? He will be insufferable now.”

  “Perhaps not,” she admitted, knowing that the Archmage was likely right. It hadn’t been necessary.

  “Think, before you act, young lady. You have the potential to be the strongest mage in a thousand years. If you learn to use your brain before you act. Otherwise, you’re going to get yourself into a situation even your strength won’t be able to undo. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, Archmage,” she said, nodding.

  “Now. I sent Morak to you for a reason. I have a mission for you.”

  She looked up, surprised. As the youngest member of the Council, and new to its ranks at that, Kyla hadn’t expected to do much more than accompany the other Council members on their missions for several years.

  “For me?” she asked, confused.

  “Yes.” The Archmage looked disturbed. “Word has come to me, of an alliance. A union of powers.”

  “The Fae,” she said, naming the mages’ usual opponents over the past few decades.

  “No.” The gravity of the Archmage’s answer had Kyla’s spine straightening.

  “What, then?”

  “The shifters,” he said in a firm, yet low tone, not wanting the words to carry.

  Kyla’s back went ramrod straight. Shifters. The mortal enemy of the mages. They had been at peace for a century now, but that was nothing.

  “The dragons are back, and have taken control of the other Houses,” the Archmage continued. “I fear that they are returning to finish us off once and for all.”

  “They might find that hard to do,” Kyla said grimly. “We have worked hard to multiply our numbers in secret, whilst they have done little more than fight amongst themselves. I do not know if they have the strength for that yet.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” the Archmage snapped. “If the elder dragons are awake, it is over. They are too powerful.”

  Kyla nodded once. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Go to High House Draconis. Meet with the Dragons, and find out what they’re up to. Why have they returned? Why are they coming after us again? Try to delay them, any way you can. We’re counting on you.”

  Kyla swallowed nervously.

  Meet with the dragons? The Archmage was asking her to walk into the lair of the beasts, and find a way to stop them. On her own. No biggie.

  Welcome to the Mage Council, Kyla Langston.

  2

  Galen eyed the thrones carved from solid stones.

  They sat along the back of the rectangular room, occupying over half of one of the long sides. Elevated, it would take him three stairs to reach them.

  If he chose to ascend to the top.

  “Is there a problem?”

  He turned to regard Aaric, the fire dragon who, until Galen had awoken, had been in charge of the few active dragons. Aaric was the one giving up the most by supporting Galen, and yet he seemed concerned that Galen wasn’t just leaping into place.

  “No,” Galen said, keeping his voice even, tone normal.

  The others didn’t need to know of his internal thoughts, the emotions coursing through his mind and body just then. They needed him to be stoic, to lead with ease and confidence. What they did not need, was to know just how broken he was on the inside.

  Thankfully, Galen had centuries of hiding that from those around him. He’d gotten so good at it, most seemed to forget his painful past, and assumed it was no longer an act but just who he was as a person and as a dragon.

  “I’m just taking a moment,” he elaborated. “I am grateful for the trust that you all have put in me, and I want to ensure I do not take it for granted. The times may be dire, but becoming your King is still an honor that I intend to respect.”

  The other dragons nodded slowly in understanding.

  “The magic awoke you.”

  That was Jax, an older earth dragon on the verge of becoming an elder. He would be very powerful indeed once his powers blossomed fully. It was Jax, and his mate Sarah, who had first awakened Galen.

  Three months had passed since then. Galen had gone through numerous classes and lessons designed to bring him up to speed on the world around him. He had driven himself harder and faster than any of the dragons before, finishing the class as fast as p
ossible.

  It wasn’t in an attempt to show off or upstage the others. Simply put, they didn’t have time for him to work any slower. The vampires were closing in, and they expected the final attack to commence any day now.

  Yet amid it all, the dragons had remained adamant that he should ascend to the throne and take up the mantle of King of High House Draconis.

  Galen wasn’t sure at all how to take that. He was an elder dragon, yes, but never in his long life had he ever considered himself to be King material. Yet Jax was right. The magic had awoken him. The others had tried to awaken a leader, and the artifact had chosen him to be that leader.

  Just because neither Galen nor any of the others could understand it, did not mean he was about to shy away from the duty appointed to him. Galen would be the best King he could be, and he would just have to hope that would be enough to save his species from the extinction that they were facing.

  No pressure.

  Taking in a deep breath, he pulled his shoulders back and held his head high. Crossing the floor with even, measured steps, he paused very briefly at the base of the Thrones before ascending.

  “In the absence of any ruling members of House Draconis, I Galen Drakon, do hereby claim for myself the title of King of House Draconis. Let any who challenge my claim speak now!” he said, his voice easily carrying to the only four people present in the chamber.

  In response, the other dragons knelt, bending a knee to their new King.

  Galen sat. His eyes flicked momentarily to the seat at his left, the chair meant to be occupied by the Queen of House Draconis. It was a spot that would have been filled once upon a time, but now was destined to remain forever empty as long as Galen was King.

  Tearing his eyes away from the stone, he looked out farther to his left, then to his right. The other positions of the House remained empty as well. Galen would fill them in time, but they had more important things to do just then.

  “Rise.”

  The other four dragons straightened. Galen surveyed them one by one.

  Aaric, the fire dragon, and his second in command.

  Victor, the water dragon. Hot-tempered, quick to act, but loyal beyond measure.