by Romi Hart
Nodding, I found Mako’s looks and the way he acted to be the opposite of Tieris. Where Tieris had peachy cream-colored skin and long, golden hair, Mako had shortly cropped dark hair and satiny, charcoal-colored skin. While Tieris had piercing blue eyes, Mako’s eyes were warm and reminded me of a rich mug of coffee. Thick dark lashes surrounded his soft eyes. The things the men shared were insanely muscular bodies, above par good looks, and a charisma that was hard to ignore.
“What is it that you guys do here in this place? And what is this place? Large stones make up the fireplace and smaller ones make up the walls. Is this a castle of some kind?” I looked up at the ceiling which was so high up that I could barely make it out in the dimly lit room.
“This is a castle,” he said as he stood up, opening his arms in gesture to the large room. “Our father made it for us. But we did recently learn how to make repairs to it. We hope to learn how to build our own worlds and homes someday. Tieris thinks he might want you and he to have your own place after your offspring begin to come.” He sat back down on the bed, leaning toward me. “I would rather you two stay here with me. I have no idea if I will ever find the female for me.”
Something about his demeanor had me thinking that maybe females weren’t his thing. “What type of woman do you like, Mako?”
Chewing on his lower lip, he looked up as he thought about it. “Well, I tend to like tall women. Like taller than I am.”
He was every bit as tall as his brother. “I bet that’s hard to find.”
“Sure is.” Getting up, he went to a far corner. “I brought you something to eat. Tieris made me promise to make you something while he’s out.”
“And why is he out?” I felt more than a little upset that he would bring me somewhere I had no clue about or where it was, then leave me alone with someone I didn’t know. Not that his brother was unpleasant, but I didn’t know him.
Bringing back something on a stick, he moved his mouth back and forth in a nervous motion. “He said not to tell you as he was afraid that you would worry.”
“Well, I am already worried, so please tell me where he went.” Looking at the thing on the stick he handed to me, I recoiled from it instantly. “What is that?”
“Nutria.” He waved it at me as if moving it that way could possibly make it more appetizing. “It’s a species here that we eat a lot of.”
I’d heard the word before. “Does it live in the water most of the time?”
“Yes. How did you know?” He kept trying to get me to take the nasty thing from him. “Here, this one is for you. I ate earlier.”
“That’s a giant rat, Mako.” I tried not to gag. “I can’t eat that.” Climbing out of the bed, I found myself growing tired and more than a little angry about what Tieris had done to me. “I can’t believe he did this to me!” My hands flew into the air as exasperation overtook me. “He said he loved me. He said he wanted us to be mates. But mates who love each other don’t take their loved one to someplace, dump them, then leave them to eat giant rats!”
“I’m so sorry.” Mako went to the window - that was just an open place in the stone wall – then tossed out the ratsicle. “I should’ve gone to see what was making the noise instead of him. But he wouldn’t hear of it. And I’m the one who made you the food. It’s not called a ratsicle. I call it, nutria-on-a-stick. But you’re right, it does resemble a big rat. I’m not much of a cook.”
I recalled something that Tieris had told me earlier and asked, “Do you happen to have more food in your kitchen that I might be able to make a meal out of?”
“We have lots of food in our kitchen.” He clapped as he hopped up and down, excitedly. “You cook?”
“I love to cook.” Taking his arm as I didn’t want to follow him as I might get lost, I asked, “Can you take me to your kitchen, Mako?”
“I can.” He patted my hand as a smile curved his lips. “I know you and I will be great friends. I’ve always wanted a sister. I love your hair too. You have to let me braid it sometime. And I adore sewing. Making you lovely dresses would be the highlight of my life.”
“While I think that would be wonderful, Mako, I don’t plan on staying here. Your brother didn’t let me make the decision to come here and I’m not happy about that.” As mad as I was at Tieris, I didn’t want Mako to think I was angry with him. “But you and I can remain friends. You didn’t steal me away from my life.”
The hallways were lit by sconces, giving off only dim light. I held tightly to Mako’s arm. He seemed to feel my apprehension. “You know, life here is like a magical dream, Linda. I know you might not have asked to come here or accepted my brother’s invitation, but I know you will love it here. We swim in our crystal-clear pond and walk through the woods, finding wild berries and nuts. And there are the most beautiful birds that live in the trees too. Some of them can talk.”
It did sound like paradise. But Tieris shouldn’t have taken me against my will. “Well, as great as this place is, your brother has to be taught that taking a woman anywhere against her will is something there will be severe consequences for.”
We went through an enormous room with a long, wooden table in it. “This is the formal dining chamber. I can’t wait for you to make us our first feast. We’ve never gotten to use this table. And for the record, Tieris didn’t take you against your will. When he told you that he would be bringing you here, he said that you fell asleep. He thought that’s what you did to make trips go by faster.”
There was no way he had thought that. “It’s very nice of you to try to smooth things over for your brother. But I know what he did.” We came through a huge arch, then we were in the biggest kitchen I had ever seen. “Wow. Just, wow. Is that a sub-zero?”
“We do have state of the art kitchen equipment. Not that we know how to use it. But it was a thing we bought to make out castle more modern.” Going to the eight-burner stovetop, he turned one of the burners on to help light up the room. “I’ll use this fire to light the sconces in here.” Pulling a long stick of what looked like a spaghetti noodle out of a glass jar, he put it to the flame then it caught on fire and he used it to light the fixtures on the walls.
In no time, the entire kitchen was lit up and I could start snooping around the place, finding brand new pots and pans and all sorts of cool kitchen gadgets. “The only bad thing about some of these things is that some of them need electricity to work.”
Raising one long finger, Mako opened one of the cabinets and I saw a large battery pack thingy with outlets attached to it. “You can plug things in here to use them. We thought of everything to help you feel at home here with us.”
“So, you’ve been preparing for my arrival?” I thought that a bit premature of Tieris since I hadn’t agreed to be his mate until the night before.
“For a week, yes we have.” He took a seat at the island bar, leaning his elbows on it, then placing his chin in his palm. “And we were trying to figure out where our water had gone and who had bombed the entrance to our castle. It was a very busy week for us. I can’t imagine how Tieris got you to agree to things in only one night. He certainly can work fast when he wants something.”
He sure could. “I just can’t figure out why he wanted me so badly. He could’ve had any woman. He’s so hot.”
“As are you.” His eyes twinkled as he looked at me. “I can see why he wants you. You remind me of our mother a bit. She too was a strong woman and you and she have similar eyes. Most sorceresses are strong though. Do you dabble in sorcery?”
“Your mom was a witch?” I thought that might be bad. “And you said was. Does that mean she’s no longer with us?”
Getting up, he went to the fridge and got out some purple stuff in a bottle. “Mother is no longer with Tieris and I. We haven’t seen her in eons.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant but didn’t want to push a subject like the death of his mother. “Do you have some eggs? I can whip up all kinds of yummy things if you do.”
Pointing at the fridge, he took
a seat then opened the screw-on lid of the bottle. “Feel free to use anything you can find. I am not picky in the least. Anything you make, I will eat.”
I found eggs in the fridge and meats that looked fairly normal. “Steak and fried eggs it is.” I got busy and in no time Mako and I were sitting at the island bar, eating the delicious meal.
As we talked and laughed, I found the man to be just as easy to be around as I had found Tieris to be. Something about him and the kitchen felt comforting to me. Although it made no sense, a part of me felt as if I’d come home.
How one can come home to a place they never knew existed was a mystery to me. But it did feel that way to me. And Mako felt similar. “Linda, I hope you like it here with us. And I hope you never want to leave. I like you a lot. You’re genuine in all ways. And I know why my brother loves you now. One day, I hope I can find my forever mate.”
“I am sure that you will.” In the meantime, I had to find some way to make peace in my heart with how Tieris had gotten me to what seemed like it would be my new home. “Mako, am I crazy or is your brother something other than merely human?”
Stuffing a huge bite of steak into his mouth, he only shook his head. But I felt as if he was hiding something with the big bite.
I smell a rat – and not the kind Mako puts on a stick either.
17
Tieris
I hadn’t counted on our realm being attacked as soon as I’d gotten home with Linda. But the sounds we’d heard told me that we were being attacked. By what, I had no clue until I came upon the most vile creatures I’d ever seen in my entire existence.
Three creatures with massive, deer-like horns used their bony appendages to uproot tree after tree. They had human bodies with human hands, but their feet were hooved like a deer’s, tearing up the soft dirt after knocking the trees over.
At first, I thought they were just up to destruction. But then I noticed what they were really up to. With the trees knocked over, the animals who lived in dens at the bases of the trees became homeless and confused. This is when the deer-things picked them up, biting them and sucking on their bodies until the poor animals looked as if they’d been sucked dry and their bodies became limp as if they no longer had any bones at all.
I found one dead animal after another before I came upon the fearsome threesome. Evident that they were there to dwindle our food supply, I morphed into my dragon and rained fire down on the creatures.
Once the flames and smoke had cleared, I found no evidence of the things. I flew down and changed into my human form only to find one of them coming out of nowhere at me.
It came so fast that I had no time to retreat and when I grabbed me, it yanked me so hard that it managed to get one bite to my wrist, where it sucked so hard that it felt as if the bones in my hand had turned to jelly.
With my left arm free, I managed to punch the thing and it let go, whimpering with a half-smashed head into the darkness. A brilliant green light blasted from the sky, and I knew that it had taken the thing away.
Holding my right wrist with my left hand, I came into the castle, hearing my brother and Linda laughing inside. Following the sound of their voices, I soon found them in the kitchen, eating. “We have trouble.”
Linda’s eyes flashed to my hand that looked deflated as I held my wrist. “Tieris! What the hell happened to you?” She jumped up and ran to me. Gently, she ran her fingers over my injured hand. “What did this to you?”
“I literally have no idea. They were built like human men. Only they had elongated faces that seemed sort of half-deer and half-human. They all had massive antlers that were strong enough to uproot fifteen-foot trees.”
Linda’s eyes went wide as she hissed, “The legendary windigo. Did they have hooved feet too?” Somehow, she’d heard of these things before.
“How did you know that?”
She put her hand underneath mine, lifting it. “I’ve seen some documentaries on it.” Moving my hand back and forth, she marveled at the limpness of it. “See, it turns the bones to liquid then sucks out the juice. I don’t know how you can fix this, Tieris.”
Mako looked at my hand too, making a face. “Gross.”
“I agree.” But I knew that I could heal much faster than Linda was aware of. What I didn’t know was how to do that without her finding out what I truly was. “So, how are you liking our home, my sweet?”
The softness in her eyes quickly changed to one of anger. “While this place is great, the fact that you brought me here against my will is not. How could you, Tieris?”
“Technically, I didn’t bring you here against your will. See, I told you about what you had agreed to and how that was very real and then you,” I tried to think of the best word to use that wouldn’t sound too bad, “went to sleep.”
“Fainted,” she corrected me. “When I heard you say crazy things, I fainted. As would most anyone. And then you took my body and did with it what you wanted to.”
“Which wasn’t bad at all. I merely brought you here to this wonderful home and put you in the most comfortable bed imaginable and made sure you were safe and warm.” I thought I’d done very well by my new mate.
Putting her hands on her hips, she looked at me with a no-nonsense expression. “What the hell are you?” She looked at my brother. “And you? What are you, Mako?”
My brother and I exchanged brief glances before I said, “We’re something akin to royalty.” It wasn’t a lie. In the shifter world, dragons were far older and therefore had more rule than other shifters.
“What sort of royalty lives in a place that has monsters in the surrounding woods?” Her chest rose wand fell as she wrapped her arms around herself. “And not that I’m agreeing to have your babies, but what kind of place is this to raise children if it has monsters all around?”
“First, you have agreed to have my offspring.” I stopped and thought I could say that in a better way. “I mean, you have agreed to have our offspring. And this place is usually more like paradise than something out of a horror movie. These windigo creatures have never been here before. Something or someone has been trying to make life here uninhabitable. But Mako and I will fight for our home. Plus, we’re much more powerful than anything else.”
“You’re more powerful than a monster who can turn your bones into liquid and drink them all out of your bodies?” she asked as she shivered. “I don’t think so. If you were, then you wouldn’t be holding your boneless, limp hand right now.”
“This is an easy fix,” I let her know. “All I need is a wet towel and I can fix it right up.” I could fix it without the use of a towel at all, but I wanted one to hide my hand while my dragon came out a bit to mend my appendage.
Mako went to get what I needed and as he did, he mused, “Odd that you decided to wait to mend it, Tieris.”
He was right, it was odd. “Perhaps my subconscious was at work.”
Linda seemed confused. “How could you mend it before you got here? I mean, how can you fix liquid bones with a wet towel? You’re not making any sense. We need to get you to a hospital. How far away is the nearest one? Maybe we should call an ambulance.”
“Water is extremely healing,” Mako let her know as he came to me, covering my hand with the wet dishcloth. “At least the water we have here is. You’ll see.”
“If that wet rag builds bones in his hand, I will be a monkey’s uncle.” Linda laughed as she went to take her seat at the island bar. Picking up her drink, a glass of purple hyacinth juice that Mako loved to make, she tipped it up and drank the full glass down in three gulps. She must not have known that it was a magical drink that would leave her feeling very happy.
Mako watched as she drained the glass. “Um, well, I see you like the drink I made for you, Linda.”
She hiccupped. “Yep. I’ve never tasted anything like it. It’s yummy.” A fit of giggles erupted out of her mouth and she clamped her hand over it. “Sorry.”
“No reason to be.” I pulled the cloth off my now
normal hand and dropped it on the table. “There we go, good as new.”
“No way!” She got up to come over to touch my hand. “Tieris, there’s no way a wet rag did that. You’re not normal. Not even a little.” She laughed again, then looked at me with wide eyes. “Why am I laughing?”
“The drink.” I nodded in the direction of the empty glass. “We usually sip that, not gulp it down.”
Wagging her finger at my brother, she reprimanded him, “You could’ve told me that, Mako.”
“I suppose you’re right, Linda. Perhaps we should get you to bed. After you laugh for about ten minutes, then you’ll fall asleep and have nice dreams.” He took her by the hand, leading her away from me.
As they moved further and further away from me, I noticed something strange. I felt no pull to Linda the way I had before. It was as if our connection had ebbs and flows. The way I scented her wasn’t like the way I had scented any female in my lifetime.
Taking a deep sniff, I found hints of ash, brimstone, and even fire. What I didn’t find were any of the things I had come to associate with the woman I had made my mate.
“This is not good.” I got up, coming up behind Mako and Linda as they moved through the narrow corridor toward my bedchamber. In such close proximity to her, I should’ve been able to home in on her scent. But nothing hit me at all.
Mako took her into my room, leading her to the bed. “You should rest. When you wake, you will feel refreshed and energetic. It should be light out then and I’m sure Tieris will want to show you around the place.”
I stood at the door, watching without feeling much at all. As if a great distance was between us, Linda too didn’t seem to be thinking about me either. “Is that a bottle of water over there?”
Mako and I both looked across the room and there was a bottle of water sitting on my chest. “Yes. Would you like a drink?”
Nodding. She laughed as she fluffed a couple of pillows, propping them up behind her head. “Please.”
