The childlike singing grew louder. She watched as winged creatures rose from the outside of the chairs. They were odd, chubby beings with tiny togas and wings. They drew back bows with heart-tipped arrows.
As they released, Cora gasped and tried to duck.
“Take cover,” Raibeart commanded.
The bulkiness of the dress caused her to slide off the cloud. Arrows whizzed over her as she landed on the ground. Her feet stumbled on the skirt, and she fell onto her chest.
“Ow, the little bastards shot me,” Rory screamed.
“No,” Margareta cried.
“Watch your candles,” a man ordered. “Tamp out that fire.”
“No, those represent the flames of eternal love. Ya can’t put them out,” Margareta protested. “Stop yelling. You’re scaring away the cherubs!”
Feeling breath by her face, Cora slowly lifted her head. Traitor stood next to her panting. His wrinkled face was lifted into a wide grin. He wiggled a little in excitement.
“Oh, hey there.” Cora pet the dog’s head as she pushed up. “Aren’t you just the little cutie.”
“This is not what I envisioned,” Margareta said. “Everyone take your seats.”
“Oh, this is exactly what I envisioned.” Malina laughed hysterically.
“Someone get this arrow out of my ass,” Rory begged.
A hand appeared next to her. She looked up at Euann. Tears of laughter were in his eyes as he helped her to her feet. Thankfully, the pannier disappeared, and her dress finally felt manageable.
“Oh, thank goodness.” Cora touched her hips.
“Ya can thank me later,” Euann said.
Angus sat in a chair, holding his stomach as he doubled over in merriment.
“Tell the truth.” Euann looked around at the chaos. Iain and Jane were trying to put out a fire. “This is the wedding of your dreams, isn’t it, future Mrs. MacGregor?”
She ignored the fires and the shouting as she touched his face. She gazed into his eyes. “It’s exactly everything I have ever dreamed of.”
Euann couldn’t stop laughing as he put his arm around her back to help her walk with him. “Raibeart, you’re up!”
An old leather volume had been set on a pedestal. Raibeart placed his hand on it. He looked at the crowd. “I vote we go with the fast version before someone is seriously injured.”
Raibeart was marrying them? Why not? This event was already strange.
Euann nodded in agreement.
“Good, you’re married.” Purple and white light shot up from the old book and rained over them. “To a long and happy life.”
They turned toward the family. Margareta was running through the gardens, chasing down cherubs. Malina sat by her father, pointing at Rory. Angus said something, and she laughed harder before nodding her head. She hurried inside the house.
A very neatly dressed woman with immaculate hair and pearls stood over Rory as he bent over a chair, tugging one of the cupid arrows out of his naked backside. The kilt had been removed so the woman could see the wound. Iain stood with Jane, Lydia, and Erik away from the chairs. Traitor seemed unconcerned as he came up the aisle and looked at her with his happy grin. What could only be cake frosting had been smushed along his chin and nose. She glanced over to see the beautiful wedding cake toppled over and dog-size prints leading away from the table.
“We need to get this dog to a vet,” Cora said. “I don’t think they can eat cake.”
“Trust me. He’ll be fine.” Euann lifted his hand. “Uncle Fergus, your dog!”
“Aye,” a man yelled, but he didn’t come to get Traitor.
Malina returned with champagne flutes and met the couple. She handed one to each and kept a third for herself. Angus whistled, and the chaos stopped. All eyes turned forward. Margareta approached with a cherub caught under her arm. The creature squirmed to be free.
“A toast, for my brother and his bride, but also a gift,” Malina said. She turned, sipping her champagne and prompting the newlyweds to do the same.
“What’s the gift?” Cora asked Euann.
“Apparently, my brother finally realized he didn’t have the ability to shift,” Malina answered Cora. “I had almost forgotten that I’d slipped a little potion into his cereal one morning after he put something in my shampoo bottle that made my hair keep turning white.” She eyed Euann. “You don’t shift very often if you are just now noticing. Anyway, the antidote is in there.” She pointed at Euann’s champagne glass.
Suddenly, Euann’s expression fell. He looked at the glass and then his sister. The flute dropped from his fingers, and he grabbed his stomach.
“Euann? What’s wrong?” Cora let go of her glass to help him.
“I’d stand back,” Malina said.
He opened his mouth to speak, but small teeth had replaced his normal ones. Fur sprouted on Euann’s face as his nose elongated. She heard a crack as his body fell forward and he landed on his paws.
“Foxhunt!” Iain yelled.
Euann looked up at her from his shifted gray fox form before darting down the forest path. He left his wedding clothes behind.
“Euann, wait,” Cora called. The men chased after him on foot.
Malina took her arm, holding her back. “Just a little prank. Call it a MacGregor family tradition. He’ll be fine in a few hours.”
Margareta huffed and let go of the cherub as she threw her hands in the air. She moved to go inside. “Anyone else need a drink?”
“As long as Malina’s not pouring,” Lydia answered with a wink.
“Welcome to the family, Cora,” Jane said. “Believe me, it only gets weirder from here.”
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue
“The local library is a book mobile?” Cora looked at the rundown truck parked in an alleyway. “You cannot be serious.”
“Was this a bad idea?” Euann had hoped it would be a nice surprise for his wife, who wanted a job. He could think of nothing better. “There is also the local animal shelter. Fergus took a special interest in it and they are fully staffed, but I’m sure they will welcome ya. I know ya miss helping the dog rescue.”
“A friend texted me to say congratulations, and she mentioned someone sent the rescue a large donation,” Cora said. “The dogs will be taken care of for the next six years.”
“Wedding present from Uncle Fergus,” Euann said, “from one dog lover to another.”
Cora continued to look at the truck with a frown.
“Was this a bad idea?” Euann had been so sure that she’d love it.
“No, this is fine, but…a broken-down truck? Kids are getting their love of books from a truck in a back alley?” She shook her head as she walked around the vehicle. “This will never do.”
“So, ya think being the local librarian is a good idea?” Euann clarified.
“Somebody needs to take over, and this is better than the idea I had to beg your mother to let me into the mysterious old library to catalog the family collection.” Cora wrapped her arms around his neck.
“She holds those keys pretty tightly. I’d wait at least fifty years before broaching that conversation.” Euann brushed the tip of his nose against hers.
“So, my honey-bunny,” Cora said, “do you remember how everyone kept saying we have tons of family money, don’t worry about a job, it will come when it comes, we can afford twelve million lifetimes?”
Euann nodded. “I don’t know about the twelve million part, but yes.”
“I need a building. Someplace big. Shelves. Computers. I have some places I can email to ask about getting us stocked with books, and I can approach the city council to help out.” She went to peek in the window of the truck. “Tables. Chairs. Racks. Art.”
“Whatever ya wish, my love,” Euann said. He followed her as she walked out of the alley toward the busy street, still listing supplies. “All I want is to see ya happy.”
“Posters, toys, pens…”
“I love ya.” Euann draped
his arm around her and kissed the top of her head.
“Oh, and a logo. I want all the kids in town to get a library card, and—”
He placed a finger on her lips. “And ya love me too?”
“Of course I love—oh!” Cora tapped his chest in excitement, stopping him from kissing her, “Do you think we could get a dog? A library dog. Or cat. Or both?”
“Get in the car. I have another surprise.” Euann opened the passenger door for her.
“Where are we going now?” She climbed inside. “Do you know of a building for the library?”
“No, this is our honeymoon.” Euann grinned. “I booked us a room at our favorite hotel.”
* * *
The End
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Bestselling Shapeshifter Romance
The Dragon’s Queen
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Dragon Lords: The Dragon’s Queen
Bestselling Shapeshifter Romance
Mede of the Draig knows three things for a fact: As the only female dragon shifter of her people, she is special. She can kick the backside of any man. And she absolutely doesn’t want to marry.
Mede has spent a lifetime trying to prove herself as strong as any male warrior. Unfortunately, being the special, rare creature she is, she’s been claimed as the future bride to nearly three dozen Draig—each one confident that when they come for her hand in marriage fate will choose them. When the men aren’t bragging about how they’re going to marry her, they’re acting like she’s a delicate rare flower in need of their protection.
She is far from a shrinking solarflower.
* * *
Prince Llyr of the Draig knows four things for a fact: He is the future king of the dragon shifters. He must act honorably in all ways. He absolutely, positively is meant to marry Lady Mede. And she dead set against marriage.
Llyr’s fate rests in the hands of a woman determined not to have any man. With a new threat emerging amongst their cat shifting neighbors, a threat whose eyes are focused firmly on Mede, time may be running out. It is up to him to convince her to be his dragon queen.
* * *
The Dragon’s Queen
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The Dragon’s Queen Excerpt
There were three things Medellyn knew for a fact. She was special. She could kick the ass of any boy. And she did not want to marry and have babies.
She was special.
Medellyn was one of the only dragon shifting females in all the universe, and definitely in all of the Draig. Only once in a thousand births was a female dragon shifter born. She was rare, or so everyone kept telling her. Her childhood was a strange contradiction. Her very proper mother tried to treat her as if she were some sacred crystal that might crack. Her warrior father tried to make her train like a boy while dressing like a girl.
She could kick the ass of any boy.
Medellyn hated when boys tried to act as if she were weak and to be protected. Her dragon was just as fierce as any of theirs, probably more so. To prove her point, she’d gladly pummel any who had challenged her to the ground…and some who hadn’t.
She absolutely, positively did not want to marry and have babies.
Being the special, rare creature she was, in the twenty not-so-sweet girlhood years of her life she’d been claimed as the future bride to nearly three dozen boys—each one confident that when they came of the age to marry she would make their crystals glow and they hers.
Glowing crystals wasn’t just a metaphor. On the day she was born, her father journeyed to Crystal Lake like all the new fathers did. He dove beneath the waves, swam down to the deepest part and pulled her stone from the lakebed. Like all Draig children, she wore the stone around her neck, and would continue to wear it until the day it glowed telling her which of the dragon shifting men she was destined by the gods to marry. Okay, technically she might be destined to marry an offworlder like most Draig men, but no one on her planet seemed to think so.
Gods bones, she hoped she wasn’t destined to end up with any of the idiots on her planet. They had yet to impress her.
When it was her turn to go to the Breeding Festival, the crystal would glow signifying her curse for all to see. Well, her “blessing” as her mother called it. Lady Grace did not appreciate her daughter calling marriage a curse. Grace did not appreciate a lot of things that Medellyn liked, such as swords and bows, ceffyl riding, camping alone in the forest, hunting, sparring, smashing arrogant looks off dragon men’s faces.
It was a fight with her mother that sent her running through the mountain forest. Medellyn hated the woman, hated what her mother wanted her daughter to be. Grace was only a human, brought to their planet as a bartered bride. She married Medellyn’s father without question and spent most of her days completely in docile agreement with whatever her husband said. Medellyn couldn’t imagine taking anyone else’s opinions over her own.
Her father, Axell, was a highly praised warrior in the Draig army and carried the title of Top Breeder of the ceffyls. The man’s whole life focused on four things: his wife, his only child, and mares and steeds. Her father was a very important man, but his work kept him away from home several nights a week as he slept outdoors with the herd. With a three-year gestation period and only about fifty percent live-birth rate, the animals were not a resource that could be easily renewed. His ceffyls supplied the soldiers with mounts and farmers used them for beasts of burden to help with the fields.
Like Axell, Medellyn was a proud dragon. Had she been born male, she would have been a warrior, too. Instead, she was special. How could her human mother begin to understand the wildness than ran in her dragon blood? If she had, Grace would never have asked Medellyn to tame her spirit.
Breathing hard, she came to an abrupt halt and screamed into the trees. Her body shook with rage and she tore at the pretty gown she wore. She hated her body, hated being special, hated being expected to act like a lady when she felt like a dragon. Her taloned finger snagged on the crystal around her neck and she cut the leather strap of the necklace. The crystal flew several feet away.
“I am not some man’s chattel,” she yelled, knowing she’d run far enough away that her mother could not hear her retorts. Since she was shifted her voice was hoarse and powerful, and she reveled in the fierceness of it. “I am not some breeding ceffyl to have children. It is not my place to give you fifty grandkids. I can’t help you only had one child. If you would have made me a boy, I wouldn’t be a disappointment to you!”
Tears stung her eyes as Medellyn walked aimlessly, searching the forest floor for the fallen necklace. Finding it, she grabbed the inert crystal into her fist. It was a reminder of all she was expected to be. She took a deep breath, looking at her fist and then to the stones littering the forest floor. A small smile formed on her mouth. Medellyn dropped the crystal on the hard ground and glared at it. Rage boiled inside her, the kind of rage surely only a dragon shifter could feel.
“This is what I think of your fate,” she growled as she fell to her knees.
Medellyn grabbed a heavy rock and smashed it down onto her necklace. The crystal cracked. The noise gave her some satisfaction so she hit it again. Grunting with each strike of the stone, she didn’t stop until her future had been ground to dust.
“That is what I think of your destiny.”
The Dragon’s Queen
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Cauldrons and Confessions
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About the Author
New York Times & USA TODAY
Bestselling Author
Michelle loves to travel and try new things, whether it's a paranormal investigation of an old Vaudeville Theatre or climbing Mayan temples in Belize. She's addicted to movies and used to drive her mother crazy while quoting random scenes with her brother. Though it has yet to happen, her dream is to be a zombie in a horror movie. For the most part she can be found writing in her office with a cup of coffee while wearing pajama pants.
She loves to hear from readers. They can contact her through her website.
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