by Romi Hart
It sounded reasonable. I followed him, thinking about what we might do when we found the water source. “If we can push something through the now empty layer between the ground and the next level of soil, we might be able to get to the cavernous area where the water came from in the first place. Perhaps we will need to make new holes for which the water to seep into our riverbed.”
“Exactly, brother.” Mako beamed at me. “We will get our water flowing, so you can bring your female home. I’m glad you decided not to build your own realm. I would miss you terribly.”
“I know you would. And I know that your nieces and nephews would miss out if they didn’t have you in their daily lives. Plus, you can learn how to care for your own offspring by helping us care for ours.” I thought my idea rather brilliant as it would get Linda and me a live-in baby-dragon sitter.
If I haven’t wasted too much time and some other male has taken my intended mate.
But I had marked her. That would make it so no other shifter would dare to bother my sweet female. But my mark wouldn’t mean a thing to any mortal man. He would think it to be a tattoo and think nothing of it.
My heart began to pound in a way it never had before. I wasn’t sure what it was about. Jealousy? Frustration? Irritation?
Then a smile found my lips as I remembered that my mark might not mean a thing to a mortal man, but to my Linda, it would mean the world. And it would make an irritating burning sensation upon her skin if she did so much as flirt with another man.
Ah, the power of the mark.
It would also start to burn if she doubted me or my love for her. Some might’ve thought it a sinister thing. But as a shifter, I knew that it was a thing that would groom her to believe in herself and the love I had for her. So, it was a necessity in many ways.
The females who shifters scented were mostly the type of women that mortal men didn’t see the same way we did. Mortals would look at the women and think of them in derogatory ways. But we shifters knew the women with robust appetites often had robust appetites for love and of course, sexual relations.
Poor mortal men and their thin ideas about what makes a woman ripe for the picking. Would one pluck a skinny berry off a vine full of plump ones? Of course, not. Nor would a shifter seek the attention of a woman of little appetite and weight.
The bigger the berry, the sweeter the juice. The same went for females. And I could not wait to taste Linda’s sweet juices. My loins began to tingle as I thought about the way I would devour my sweet when I got back to her.
Although I had forgotten to think about Linda at times while making repairs to our castle, the moment she did come back to my mind, she made my body ache for her. The way I had scented her might’ve been different, but I found it to be a good different.
Mako and I stopped our venture to the dry riverbed as the sound of thunder shook us. “A storm?” Mako asked.
Looking up at the clear blue sky, I saw no sign of bad weather. “I think not, brother.”
Out of the trees came two large Grizzly bears, snarling as they made their way to us. Mako held out a hand in a gesture for the animals to stay back. “We want no trouble, animals.”
“Mako, they can’t be regular bears,” I reminded him. “Not here. Not in our realm.”
“Ah, you are so right, Tieris.” He held his arms up as a greeting sign. “Let us converse in human form, shifter brothers.”
As the bears came our way, their faces began to morph into those of their human forms. They transitioned on the move as they came to us.
Although both above average size for human men, the tallest of the two bowed low. “Please excuse us for coming uninvited. We have traveled a path that led us here to your world, dragons. I am Zanthe of the Devine Forest. And this is my brother, Freedrick.”
The other man bowed. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, dragons.”
“I am Tieris and this is my brother, Mako. And what path led you here, might I ask?” Crossing my arms, I stood with a solid stance to wait for their answer.
Zanthe pointed at the boulders that made up the now dry waterfall. “You are missing water. Are you not?”
Mako gave them a nod. “That, we are, brother bear.”
Freedrick carried on, “We are missing air in our cave as water has filled the interior cavern where we live.”
“Ah, ha!” Mako smiled and slapped me on the back. “I think we’ve found our water.”
“It sounds like it.” But how was my main concern. “And how did this water enter your cavern?”
“We have no idea,” Zanthe let us know. “We were deep into our winter hibernation when we woke to soaked fur and water growing deeper by the second.”
Freedrick shivered. “Had it not been for my brother’s awakening, we would’ve been trapped beneath the water for eternity. Spending eternity drowning isn’t the way we want to live.”
“So, you have no idea how this water came to fill your cavern and we have no idea how our water came to leave our river.” I tapped my chin as I thought about our ordeals.
Zanthe cocked his head to one side as he looked at the vast stretch of dry rocks that had once been the bed-stones of our river. “Perhaps we could poke around your dry river to find out what happened here.” He began walking along the middle of the river until he found something of interest. Leaning over, he picked up something and held it up to examine it. “A scale. Like that of a giant fish.”
Mako went to see what he’d found. “There were no giant fish in our waters, Zanthe.” He took the scale from the bear-shifters hand. “And this is from no fish. This black scale is from a dragon.” He held it against his skin that shared the same dark shade as his dragon scales did. “And it is no match to mine either.”
Freedrick and I came up to see what they’d found. A shiny, jet-black scale glistened in the sun’s light. A rainbow began to form on the scale then it became larger and larger until the rainbow filled the sky over our heads. “And what of this?” I had to ask.
Freedrick hissed, “Sorcery.”
Mako nodded. “Magic.”
Mako held the scale up high and as he did so, the sound of water bubbling as if it boiled in a pot filled our ears. All around us, the springs began to fill with water. Water soon pooled around our feet, making us retreat to the edge of the river that had begun to refill.
Zanthe looked at his brother. “Shall we go check our cave and the massive cavern we call home to see if this has rectified our situation?”
“I think we shall.” Freedrick smiled at us as the two took their leave. “Thank you. I hope this is the fix we all needed.”
“Us too,” I called out. “Mako, who could’ve done this? I know no sorcerer. I know no wizard. But I do know a dragon scale when I see one.” It had to be a dragon at the forefront of this thing. But which one would be powerful enough to move water?
Mako turned the scale over in his hand. “An enchanted dragon scale, brother. If this thing alone can bring our water back, what else can it do? And how did it become enchanted in the first place?”
“I have no idea. But I do know that we need to protect this object of magic.” Turning to head back to our castle, I knew we had to put the scale in a safe place. “We have that glass case with a small padlock on it. I’ve got to find the key, then we can keep it safely under our guard.”
“I shall sleep with it underneath my pillow. Whatever this thing is and whomever it belongs to, they will want it back once they realize it’s missing.” Mako came up beside me, bumping his shoulder to mine. “Now that we’ve got our castle looking spiffy again and water to drink, I suppose you’ll be heading off to grab your mate.”
I hadn’t even thought about that, but my brother was right. Now that things were taken care of, I could get to my intended and woo her into coming home with me.
Things would’ve been so much easier had it been the golden age of dragons and damsels. But with technology and such, I had to go by the same rules that humans did. I had
to gain her trust and get her to agree to come with me.
My hopes were that my mark was already working on her mind, grooming her to accept that she and I were linked forever. She had choices, but one of them would leave me lonely and frustrated.
My mark would see to it that she would also be left lonely and frustrated. Unless she happened upon a knight of old who happened to know how to safely remove my mark from her tender flesh.
Thankfully, there weren’t many knights anymore. Shifters had other threats though. Apparently one of them was on the loose, looking to ruin at least a few of us.
Is now the best time to take on a mate?
Although only a couple of things had happened, wars had been started with far less. If a war was at hand, would it be fair to bring Linda into our world at this time?
But if the trouble came from a young shifter, set on testing his limits, then putting my mating off would make no sense and put things in jeopardy with Linda.
What to do?
As if Mako could read my thoughts, he offered, “Go get her, brother. Bring her to our realm. I’m sure that being here in this paradise will have her mind set on being yours.”
“How long has it been since I left her?” I’d lost track of time as I often did when in our little world, instead of on Earth.
“Seven days,” Mako reminded me. “Not too long as to have lost her. And long enough so as to have her miss you.”
“Yes, surely she missed me.” I had to feel bad for a moment as I hadn’t always missed her or thought about her. “She’s different, Mako. I don’t feel the same way about her that I did about the others. I don’t always have her on my mind. Is that bad?”
We stepped into the castle and went to the chamber that housed the glass box. Mako seemed to be thinking about my question as we found the box and I went to a space in the wall and retrieved the key. I handed it to him, and he put the scale inside, locking it up, then put the small box into his pocket. “I do believe that the reason you aren’t finding the same exact pattern with this female might mean you two will have a different type of relationship.”
Nodding, I had the same thoughts as he did. “Before with the other females, I’d had one thing on my mind and once their bellies were filled with my offspring I wanted no more to do with them. But with Linda I have somewhat of that all-encompassing need and desire to breed her. Yet, when I leave her company for more than a few hours, I stop thinking about her almost entirely.”
With a shrug, Mako added, “Perhaps that is what it takes to make a long-term, long-lasting relationship.”
Whatever it was, I still wanted Linda with me. Maybe our passion did ebb when we weren’t near one another. But when we were, it was an amazing attraction that took my attention completely.
Perhaps this is more than mere lust. Perhaps this is love.
10
Linda
Tossing and turning in my bed, I couldn’t stop myself from dreaming about Tieris even though it had been an entire week since I’d seen or heard from him. The hasty retreat after the phone call and text message had me feeling a lot more worried than I had in the beginning.
What if something has happened to him?
It was far more likely that he just didn’t want anything more to do with me, but I couldn’t help but worry that harm may have come to the gorgeous man who’d given me the best night of my life.
Getting out of bed, I went to the bathroom to splash my face with water. I wanted to get the bad thoughts out of my head as they bothered me so much that I knew I wouldn’t be able to get any sleep if I couldn’t figure out how to push the negative thoughts away.
Looking in the mirror at my face, I ran my hands over it. “This plain face isn’t a thing that a man like that wants to see every day.” I ran my hands over my round hips then over my bulging tummy. “These aren’t things a man like Tieris wishes to touch more than once.”
I had to make myself believe that no harm had come to the handsome man. He just didn’t want to see or touch me anymore. It was understandable, I supposed. I was gruesome compared to his perfection.
Tugging my cotton nightgown into place around my round body, I went back to my bed, knowing now without a doubt that Tieris was just fine. He just didn’t want me anymore – maybe never had. My first idea that he’d been using me to win a bet had to be true. No man like him would want a woman like me.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
As I stood at the foot of my bed, I looked at the closed curtained window where the sound had come from.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
Freezing in place, I grew afraid of who or what would be scratching at the screen on the other side of the glass-paned window after midnight. But my mouth wouldn’t open to ask.
Vampire? Werewolf? Bigfoot?
I hadn’t heard of Bigfoot being spoken about in Rome. But it had been a legendary beast in America when I was young, and we had lived there. All I knew was that whatever was at my window had fingernails that made the scratching sound.
Scratch, scratch, scratch. “Linda, it’s me, Tieris.”
Tieris?
Still frozen in place, I thought this must be another dream. I had dreamt about the man all night long - it made sense. “Tieris, what do you want?”
“You, my sweet. Please let me in, Linda. I yearn to see you,” came his pleas.
My mouth felt dry and I looked at the nightstand beside my bed, finding a bottle of water that I hadn’t recalled putting there. But in dreams things appeared that hadn’t been there before, so I didn’t think twice about it and picked it up, taking a long drink to quench my parched mouth.
As the cool water went down my throat the tat on my back heated up. Perhaps my subconscious was ready to go toe to toe with the man who put that mark on my body. Maybe that’s why I was dreaming that the gorgeous Tieris was scratching at my window.
Going to the window, I pulled the curtain open to find his face right there on the other side of the glass. A smile on his perfect face and a bouquet of flowers in his hand, he charmed me right away. “Can I come in, my sweet? I’ve brought bleeding hearts and dragon’s breath for you.”
I’d come this far in my dream. I thought that I might as well let him in. “Go to the front door and I’ll meet you there.”
Closing the curtain, I found myself smiling all the way to the door. But when I opened it, my heart stopped. I could smell him as I looked at him, smoke and flames – Tieris’ unique cologne. It’s really him.
“Linda!” Moving fast, he stood in my living room, thrusting the flowers into my hand as his hands roamed over my shoulders. “I’ve missed you my darling. You have no idea how busy I’ve been in my world. I mean my village. But we’ve squared things away now and I’m ready for you to make a visit. Are you ready to come with me?”
Taking the flowers, I walked to the kitchen, trying to decide if this was real or not. “Not yet, Tieris. So, what happened in your village or world or whatever you come from?” Filling a small vase with water, I put the odd flowers into it. “These are flowers I’ve never seen before. I guess the weird flowers means this is a dream. I’ve been dreaming about you all night. Why would now be any different?”
Leaning against the counter, he grinned at me as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Is that right? You’ve been dreaming about me, have you?”
“Sure.” I put the vase on the small dining table in the kitchen. “You’re the most interesting and devastatingly handsome man I’ve ever met. It makes sense why I would be unable to forget about you and dream about you.”
Coming up behind me, his arms went around my waist as I bent over the table to smell the flowers. “You are the most devastatingly beautiful woman I’ve ever met, Linda.”
Even in my imagination, I couldn’t believe him. “Tieris, you don’t have to lie to me.”
Turning me in his arms, he lifted me up, carrying me toward my bedroom. “I can smell your scent that lingers along the trail to the place you sleep,
where your scent is the strongest. And I smell no other scent that would tell me that you have company in your bed. So, can I take you to your bed, my sweet? Can I lay you down upon the bed and gaze at your beauty?”
I felt as light as a feather in his strong arms and ran mine around his elegantly long neck. “If you would like to.” It wasn’t real so I felt it wouldn’t hurt to play along. “Or you could climb into bed with me. We could cuddle.”
“This is a dream come true.” He kicked the door to my bedroom open, then put me down on the bed. “Shall I undress, my sweet?”
I don’t see why not.
It might be interesting to see what my subconscious mind would come up with for the perfect man’s body, so I said, “I would like that very much.”
His golden brows raised as he gave me a sexy smile. “Wow. You’re being very receptive. And to think that I was worried about you being mad at me.”
“Mad about you being gone for a week? Mad about you not contacting me even though you had my number? Or mad about this tattoo you managed to give me somehow?” There were so many things for me to be angry with him over.
Shrugging, he merely smiled at me as he pulled his shirt off over his head. His massive chest – bare of any hair – took my attention as he went on, “I was too busy to call, and you also had my number and didn’t attempt to contact me either. And that’s not a tattoo. That is my mark.”
Laughing a little, I had to ask, “Your mark? So, what does it mean when you put your mark on a person, Tieris?”
Trailing his hand over the most highly defined abs my imagination could muster, he let me know what it meant to have his mark on me, “It means that you belong to me.”
Lost in his magnificent physique, I could only mumble, “For how long?”
“Forever.” He dropped his pants, revealing a lengthy, thick appendage that stood ready to please me in ways I was more than ready to experience - if only in my dreams.
