The Protector (Fire's Edge)

by Abigail Owen

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Discover more Amara titles… Drakon’s Knight

  Deception

  Bane’s Choice

  Bitten Under Fire

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 by Abigail Owen. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

  Entangled Publishing, LLC

  10940 S Parker Rd

  Suite 327

  Parker, CO 80134

  rights@entangledpublishing.com

  Amara is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

  Edited by Heather Howland

  Cover design by Mayhem Cover Creations

  Cover photography by _italo_/DepositPhotos

  Refluo/Getty Images

  ISBN 978-1-64937-089-1

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First Edition December 2020

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for supporting a small publisher! Entangled prides itself on bringing you the highest quality romance you’ve come to expect, and we couldn’t do it without your continued support. We love romance, and we hope this book leaves you with a smile on your face and joy in your heart.

  xoxo

  Liz Pelletier, Publisher

  To Tammy.

  Your wish is granted.

  Prologue

  Mid-1800s

  Levi Rowtag blasted a glittering, golden-tipped stream of dragon fire into the rocky heart of the mountain face before him. He was careful to watch the granite as it turned ember-red under the torrent coming from his maw, eventually crumbling with the force and the heat.

  They wouldn’t be able to use this technique much farther into this part of the mountain where the spaces would become human-sized by design. He just needed to drill this doorway through to the natural cavern on the other side. Essentially, what would become the front entrance to their new headquarters.

  A home. Finally.

  Every dragon shifter preferred a base. Usually within a mountain, as evidenced by how the six clans—gold, blue, white, red, black, and green—based in Europe and Asia had each claimed multiple mountain strongholds within their territory as homes for their people. Their kind had been this way for millennia.

  After over a century in the Americas dragon shifter colonies working as enforcers sent to uphold the kings’ laws in the “new world,” Levi’s team, the Huracáns, had finally received orders to establish a permanent base. They’d eventually settled on a mountain in Northern California that was smaller but broader at the base, which suited them just fine. So did the region they’d selected.

  Rule number one among his kind was humans should never learn of dragon shifters’ existence, and what better way to ensure that than blending in? The discovery of gold in nearby Coloma had brought humans in droves, mining and panning for more of the stuff. Crawling the area like ants. Luckily, that also gave the team the perfect cover story for their “mining” efforts in their mountain.

  “Levi, how are you progressing?” His alpha’s voice—scratchy and cadenced with the accent of humans from the Hindustan region in Asia—sounded telepathically in his head, communicating the way all shifters did when in animal form. In this case, Deep directed the thought to the entire team scattered over the mountain.

  “Almost through,” Levi answered.

  Five minutes later, the last of the mountainside crumbled away. The dust settled slowly, revealing a hole leading into a large natural cavern.

  “Damn, I have talent,” he announced.

  Out of the cloud of dust and debris a man with black hair and fathomless black eyes emerged from the cavern. “Did you take a nap out there?”

  If Levi didn’t know Titus better after more than a century together, he might have been thrown at the seriousness of the man’s expression.

  “Do you challenge my prowess, sir?” Levi called back in the affected speech of many wealthy humans of the age. “How dare you? What is it to be? Daggers or pistols at dawn?”

  “I’m a better shot than you,” Titus said with that slow, almost reluctant smile of his. Like it pained his face to make the expression.

  “We have visitors.” Rune, the other black dragon on the team, cut through the chatter.

  Titus and Levi both stiffened, turning to scan the skies.

  “To the north,” Rune continued. “Two red dragons. Not ours, Finn, before you ask.”

  Red? And strangers? To their knowledge, the nearest dragon shifter settlement was a hundred miles away—a relocated family from the Green Clan.

  Focused on the sky in that direction, Titus shifted and joined Levi as he took off, joining Deep, and their beta Finn, to hover in midair and wait patiently. Even Rune was relatively still, and he tended to be an impatient fucker.

  Sure enough, from the north over the tall pine trees and shorter black oaks that covered the rolling eastern mountain range, two dragons appeared, one larger, one smaller—a female?—and both deep red in color. They flew slowly and low enough that the scales on their bellies, which could reflect the skies, wouldn’t hide them. In other words, in plain sight.

  As soon as they caught a glimpse of the line of shifters waiting, they stopped—far enough away they could hardly be seen or scented.

  “Calm the fuck down.” The larger of the two sent the thought ahead of them in a voice that was pure growl.

  “Give us good reason,” Deep challenged.

  “The Alliance sent me.” Nothing else.

  “And do you have a name?” Finn asked, his blue scales blending into the skies more than the others’.

  “Drake Chandali.”

  Chandali? Seven hells.

  A warrior from the line of Pytheios, the King of the Red Clan, and the defacto High King of all dragon shifters. To be an enforcer was an honor reserved for the best fighters from each clan, but damn.

  The two newcomers held their distance, waiting to be invited closer. Smart.

  “Is this your mate?” Deep asked next. Smaller usually meant female. Given that their kind were born almost exclusively male, most females they ran across were turned mates.

  “I am the sister he’s damn lucky to have. Lyndi. And I’m the nice one.”

  Her husky, sinfully lush voice filled Levi’s head, and his dragon pitched forward, like a horse chomping at the bit, surging as though needing to go to her. He jerked himself upright. Just a small bobble, but enough to get a side-eye from Deep and Finn.

  Like a blasted rookie.

  “Welcome to you both,” Deep said. “We’re happy to have
another member. My mate, Calla, is at our temporary camp, but I have no doubt she will be elated to have another woman around.”

  Every dragon in the line relaxed, postures easing forward as they spread out more. This wasn’t a threat but more hands to share the work. Deep had been requesting more men from the kings since the team had first been formed. In theory, like the enforcer teams in the African and Australian dragon shifter colonies, the Huracáns should consist of two members from each of the clans, twelve in all.

  But they never had. There were just the five of them—Levi, Finn, Rune, Titus, and Deep…and Calla, their mother hen.

  Finally, Drake and his sister approached. As they moved nearer, the wind changed, and Levi got slammed with several senses all at once as his dragon focused on the female with an inexplicable intensity. Glorious, with garnet scales so dark they turned near black at the edges. Delicate, yet no doubt deadly if she was a Chandali. Her scent—smoke and cut grass and sunshine, like springtime—wafted toward him on the wind and his dragon went fucking wild.

  Claim.

  Levi tried to haul himself back even as the dragon did his best to shoot forward, instinct shouting at him to pin her down and be damned to anyone who tried to take her from him. The human side of him slipped deeper with each passing second, almost as though he was seeing the scene happen from down a tunnel that grew longer and longer.

  In desperation, Levi wrested back control and yanked his wings in tight to drop to the ground as fast as he could. The second his back feet touched dirt, he shifted just to contain the beast. From the ground, he watched, even as his dragon roared in his head and pushed against his insides to be released.

  Seven hells.

  He waited, tethering his animal to his humanity as tightly as he dared. What was wrong with him? Dragons’ mates were found among human women who showed dragon sign, not among female-born shifters who were already dragons themselves. A dragon and his mate’s soul-deep connection was forged in fire when he turned her. Every dragon prayed and waited for the day he’d meet his mate, a craving that went deeper than every other instinct they were born with. His dragon was making no sense, wanting to claim this woman. They wouldn’t be able to bond if he tried it.

  “Are you the only new recruit for us?” Deep asked.

  At least Levi could still listen to the discussion, even if he couldn’t join the conversation now that he was human.

  “You should expect two green and two white dragons in the near future.”

  His dragon focused on the fact that Lyndi had been the one to answer. Drake didn’t talk much apparently.

  “I’m surprised the High King allowed you to join your brother here,” Titus commented.

  “I didn’t ask.” A decided smirk lilted in her voice.

  If Levi wasn’t so hell-bent on keeping his dragon contained, he would’ve grinned. Technically she didn’t need permission to go anywhere. As long as one retained the king’s mark on the back of the right hand on the fleshy part between thumb and forefinger, a sign of loyalty and belonging to a clan, one was free to come and go and dwell wherever, though most stayed near the place of their birth. But as a female-born, and especially as a relative of the High King, things were different for her. There would be…expectations. She would be considered a political prize, and an advantageous mating would no doubt be arranged for her at some point.

  Lyndi Chandali was either incredibly brave or damn stupid.

  “Let us land and greet each other properly,” Deep offered.

  Levi grunted as his dragon surged again. Still needing distance, he stumbled inside the cavern he’d just drilled a hole into, seeking calm in the cooler interior out of sight of the others.

  After several minutes, he spotted the group through the entrance, all shifted and now moving inside where he waited. The newcomer, Drake, walked in front, blocking Levi’s view of the female causing him so much trouble.

  Then Drake, his face seeming to be formed in a permanent scowl, red eyes glowing with flame, moved to the side, and Levi’s dick went as hard as a steel broadsword as his gaze zeroed in on her.

  Silky black hair, lithe body, and the face of an angel. Her wide smile, highlighted by a deep dimple that gave her beauty an adorable edge, hit him at the same time as her spring scent. Levi agreed with his dragon on the spot.

  Mine.

  Lyndi turned her head away from Deep, who had escorted her inside with her hand linked through his arm, and stilled at the sight of him. No doubt his eyes were golden flames. The skin over his cheekbones tightened. Hell, everything tightened. He opened his mouth to welcome her, but her smile suddenly disappeared and she shot him a glare so full of spitting fury, he stepped back.

  “Just because I am female-born doesn’t mean you need to treat me like a leper and fly away,” she snarled at him.

  Levi froze, a riot of conflicting thoughts keeping him from correcting her. He knew he’d just fucked up, and his dragon was riding him hard to tell her she was wrong. That some misplaced sense of male dragon superiority wasn’t why he’d run.

  It was exactly the opposite, actually.

  Lyndi walked away while he stood there, still stunned, and he watched her go.

  There was no easy answer here, and the lead weight in his chest told him so. Given who she was related to and what she was, not to mention her clear aversion to him already, he had no damn clue how fix any of this, or if he should even try.

  Chapter One

  Present day

  The jarring wail of a siren split through Lyndi’s sleep and had her jackknifing up in bed. Still, it took another second of blinking herself awake, the sensual haze of the dream that had plagued her for centuries taking a second to dissipate, before her brain fully engaged. She glanced at the clock on her bedside table. Three in the morning.

  Another dragon fire.

  Well…hell. These were turning into an almost weekly occurrence, and not for no reason. The team just didn’t know what that reason was yet.

  Which was a serious problem.

  She went into a whirlwind of dressing, which involved searching through her pile of clean but not-yet-folded clothes, slowing her down. Where was her other shoe?

  Her brain chugged along at its standard uncaffeinated pace. She probably shouldn’t have been up all night trying to track down another orphan she’d heard whispers of through the grapevine. More fires often meant more fights and more young, abandoned dragon shifters in need of a home and a semblance of family life. A home and life Lyndi and her house full of orphaned dragons could provide.

  She hadn’t found this one yet. But she would.

  The siren shut off, the sudden absence of sound somehow more jarring.

  Shit. That meant the rest of the enforcers on night duty were already there.

  Yanking on her last shoe, she gathered her thick, black hair—her one admitted vanity—into a ponytail, then burst from her room and navigated the labyrinth of levels and halls inside the mountain to skid to a halt at the war room.

  Slowing her breathing, she scooted through the door and tucked herself behind Levi’s broad shoulders, glad, for once, of the gold dragon shifter’s height and muscles to hide behind and pretend she’d been there all along. Except this close, his scent surrounded her—smoke, of course, but with a hint of brandy and fine cigars—yanking her into the memory of that dream she absolutely was not just having about the two of them.

  Her body throbbed, calling her all sorts of liar.

  “You’re late,” Levi tossed over his shoulder in a muttered warning without even turning his head.

  Lyndi glared at his Hawaiian shirt-covered back.

  How did he do that? She’d moved with a stealth that Rune had taught her years ago, back before he’d turned traitor and left the team. But Levi still always knew exactly where she was.

  Probably because he didn’t want her aro
und. He hadn’t wanted her here from the day she’d shown up in California with her brother, but especially not acting as part of the team, as she was now.

  The thing was, Lyndi was a female-born dragon, and female-born dragons weren’t supposed to be fighters. An idiotic tradition in her opinion. Rare and sterile didn’t make her helpless by a long shot. Unfortunately, females like her were seen as good for only two things: political alliances if they were born to a high-ranking family like Lyndi had been, or helping their male family members take care of their young, like spinster aunts.

  Lyndi had chosen neither door A nor B, instead going with door C, where she’d followed the only brother she liked to the Americas—though door A wasn’t locked. An arranged mate could come knocking any day. But “out of sight, out of mind” had worked for her so far.

  For one weak moment, she allowed her gaze to linger on the back of Levi’s head—dark, golden hair cropped short, the swirling lines of his family mark on the back of his neck, the strength of broad shoulders that were always trying to bear the weight of the world for the people he protected.

  Her dragon, who’d always liked him, threatened to purr—she’d enjoyed that dream a little too much—and Lyndi shook off the mounting tension that had been growing like a cancer inside her since the moment she stepped foot in this mountain.

  She was perfectly happy, dammit. Without him.

  Giving in to wanting him wouldn’t be fair to either of them, a decision she’d made the day she’d first met him and her dragon had whimpered her approval.

  Not that he was interested.

  Even if he were, mating him—or what that looked like for female-born dragons, at least—wouldn’t be advantageous to her family, so her king wouldn’t allow it. But an even bigger reason, for her at least, was the fact that female-borns could never be a true mate. Not like a human mate. The bond a dragon could create with a human was soul-deep and incredibly special, a connection that extended a dragon’s life by another thousand years until he and his mate died together, never to be apart in this life or the next.

  She’d seen what not mating had done to Drake. The slow, torturous deterioration he’d tried to hide. Cami saved his life. To not find a fated mate would be cursing Levi to an early death.