The Rogue King

by Abigail Owen

  He hit a key on his keyboard to project an image of a man—a younger version of the king recently executed.

  “Despite the Dagrun insignia that now marks Brand’s hand and every other golden dragon’s hand of those we captured or who have joined him, Uther’s son, Brock, has taken over leadership of the Gold Clan. However, because of the branding, there is unrest at Brock’s leadership. The rumors we’ve managed to circulate among that clan that you killed Uther are also helping. Like the Blue Clan with Thanatos before I took power, most of the gold dragons are too scared to rise up against their king. But with you in the wings, a new king of royal bloodline, I think they’ll rally behind you once you take out the remaining leaders. Now is the time to attack.”

  Brand and Kasia shared a long, unspoken look, communicating through a link they claimed allowed them to know the other’s feelings. “What if Kasia and I go there alone? Does your informant’s evidence lead you to conclude that my claim to the throne would be accepted?”

  Ladon gritted his teeth again but gave the question due consideration. “Asher?”

  His Beta cocked his head. “We killed all of Uther’s main supporters at the wolf shifters’ camp.”

  Reid leaned forward. “Those occupying Ben Nevis have either left, are in our dungeons, or asked for asylum to pledge loyalty to their new king.” He nodded at Brand.

  Ladon eyed his ally and friend. “Brock is your biggest roadblock to the throne.”

  “But?” Brand asked.

  “I would rather not lose my only true allied king, or the phoenix, or both. It’s too dangerous. You’re both too valuable.”

  “What do you suggest, then?” Brand demanded.

  “We take the throne.”

  “Killing more of my people?” Brand asked. “Why would they accept me as king after that?”

  “There has to be a middle ground,” Kasia insisted.

  “Such as?” Ladon asked. This aversion to spilling blood coming from one of the more ruthless dragons he knew was perplexing. Perhaps a destined mate was not a desired relationship for a king, making the man weak and soft.

  “I’d love to hear this myself,” an unfamiliar female voice interrupted.

  Ladon jerked around to find a woman standing just inside the door, glaring at Kasia and Brand.

  The men around his table all jumped to their feet, low rumblings of warning filling the room.

  Interest stirred inside Ladon, and his dick responded. She was the type of woman to make an instant impression. Tall and slender, an oval-shaped face with gloriously fuckable lips, raven black hair, and ice-blue eyes. Eyes that were a hallmark of a white dragon shifter. Add in a hostile gaze currently blasting the room with an arctic chill.

  “Skylar?” Kasia choked as she rose unsteadily to her feet.

  Brand, usually so unmovable, couldn’t hold back an exclamation. “Holy shit.” The man had to reach out to keep his chair from tipping over as he stood beside his mate.

  Even Maul, still healing from the fight but never far from Kasia’s side, raised his head from his paws and whined.

  Ladon stood, too.

  “Who’s Skylar?” Arden asked, looking back and forth between the woman and Kasia.

  Meanwhile, Ladon turned to the woman, sniffing the air. Shock mingled with confusion as a familiar scent washed over his senses. “Who are you?” He reiterated his sister’s question, but directing it at the woman.

  “What are you doing here?” Kasia overrode his question before Skylar could answer.

  “I’m here to save you from yourself.” She flung the words at Kasia, like an accusation.

  Now Kasia scowled. “Dammit, Sky. I mated Brand by choice.”

  “Not what I heard.”

  “I don’t give a shit what you heard. We’re supposed to stay apart—”

  “We were supposed to stay apart so we could be safe from dragon shifters. You went and mated one.”

  Another rumbled warning filled the room as his warriors took offense to the words and the venom in her voice.

  Skylar advanced into the room—stalked, more like, with the predatorial grace of a jungle cat—her intent to do harm to Kasia telegraphing through her balled fists.

  Ladon stepped into her path.

  With a sneer, she ran her gaze down him, sizing him up. Then she lifted a single eyebrow, obviously having found him wanting.

  Ladon shoved aside the irritation that unusual reaction drew from him. “You’re not going near her.”

  She crossed her arms, clearly unimpressed. “You’re not going to stop me.”

  “Who the hell are you?” He didn’t like repeating himself.

  Skylar smiled, those fantasy-inducing lips tipping up in grim delight. “I’m Kasia’s sister.”

  “Fuck me,” Duncan muttered.

  The rest of his people stirred. He could practically feel the shock reverberating through the room. Everything inside Ladon froze as multiple implications hit him at once, but one came front and center.

  Another phoenix. Impossible.

  On the heels of that realization came another.

  Mimicking her posture, he crossed his arms and smiled back. “You shouldn’t have revealed your presence to me, little firebird.”

  Narrowed eyes shot sparks at him. “And why not?” she challenged.

  “Because now you’re mine.”

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  Acknowledgments

  As always, I have a ton of thanks that I owe to a wide support network of fantastic folks.

  To my fabulous readers… Thanks for the support, and hugs, and interest, and being awesome. (And especially for reading my books!) Kasia and Brand’s story started as a novella, but as I wrote, their world and their story just kept getting bigger, until this became one of my favorite stories ever. I hope you love them as much as I do! If you have a free sec, please think about leaving a review. Also, I love to connect with my readers, so I hope you’ll drop a line and say “Howdy” on any of my social media!

  To my amazing editor, Heather Howland… You believed in my voice and this series from the get-go. You supported me through edits, and brainstorming, and rewriting, and more edits, and more brainstorming until we got it just right. I am so happy and grateful to have you in my corner!

  To my Entangled team, you’ve made everything about writing and publishing romance fun and exciting. Because of you, I know I’m publishing the best book possible and that it will get the best support. Y’all rock!

  To my agent, Evan Marshall… Thank you for everything—your wonderful guidance, your belief that I will do great things, and your patience as I sign up for, well, everything.

  To my writing partner, Nicole Flockton… You make this gig fun, day in and day out, with your support, love, and straight talk.

  To Anna Stewart… Thank you for loving these stories as much as I do. Your edits, and support, and squeezing me into your schedule, have been huge for making these stories great!

  To my support team of beta readers, critique partners, writing buddies, reviewers, RWA chapters, friends, and family (you know who you are)… I know I say this every time, but I mean it… You’re the best and make my days brighter by being part of them.

  Finally, a huge THANK YOU and I LOVE YOU to my happily-ever-after husband and my incredible kids, who laugh and shake their heads as I wander around in a daze 90 percent of the time, living in the worlds in my head. You are my inspiration and my heart. Because of your support and love, I get to live my dream.

  On the other side of the world,

  the clan kings have tasked elite dragon enforcers with keeping order among the American colonies...

  Keep reading for an excerpt from

  The Boss, book one in the

  Fire’s Edge ser
ies...

  THE BOSS

  from the companion Fire’s Edge series

  by Abigail Owen

  Finn Conleth leads his team of enforcer dragon shifters with an iron fist and a cold heart. Every dragon seeks his destined mate, but the process to turn the woman he once thought was his killed her and devastated him. He will never risk his heart again. His team is his family now. When his body eventually gives out, he’ll leave, living his last days alone.

  Delaney Hamilton moved across the country to escape the freak fires that plague her. But when another suspicious fire erupts and rapidly escalates around her, her hopes for a new life go up in smoke. She has no choice but to turn to the mysterious men who come to her aid.

  Finn knows the fire is dragon-caused, which puts Delaney’s problems directly in his jurisdiction. No matter how her wounded grey eyes call to every part of him, he refuses to risk her life in the mating process.

  Until another dragon threatens to claim Delaney for his own, and Finn has to sacrifice everything to keep her alive...

  I

  “Not good enough. Get your asses up here.” Finn barked his displeasure through the telepathic link that enabled his men to hear his orders while in dragon form.

  He beat his massive blue wings to hover in the air as he watched his team of shifters run through the training exercise he’d set up. The dragons below him, a rainbow of colors against the greens and golds of the Sierra Nevada mountainside, circled the flaming oil drums, but they pulled up on his command.

  His team was the best for a damn good reason. And they were about to be reminded why.

  Rivin and Keighan, the team’s two white dragons, snapped and dueled playfully as they made their way to Finn.

  Finn shook his head and sent his Beta, Levi, a mental message. “Take care of Heckle and Jeckle, will you?”

  “My pleasure, boss.”

  Despite his dwarfing them in size, the white dragons were too distracted to notice Levi’s giant body closing in until it was too late. He buzzed overhead and smacked both on the head with a downbeat of his wings.

  “Hey!” came twin protests.

  Levi snorted a laugh as he flew away, his dark gold scales reflecting the morning rays of light.

  Aidan, blending in with the sky around them, flew past the drama without paying the white dragons any attention. Finn had to give the rookie credit. The young blue dragon was smart not to get dragged into Rivin and Keighan’s shenanigans, which was more than he could say for some of the more senior members of the team.

  Hall and Drake looked to be arguing. Again.

  Hall, the pale green dragon, spat a hissing stream of lime-green tinted fire at the larger dark red dragon flying off to his left. For his part, Drake evaded the flame with practiced ease and answered by performing a flip maneuver that swung his spiked tail dangerously close to Hall’s head. A warning shot.

  With Kanta, the other green dragon on the team, back at headquarters instead of running interference between the two shifters, Hall was going to get himself thumped. Served him right, though. When would he learn not to pick a fight with the biggest badass of the bunch? Before joining the Huracán Enforcers, Drake had been part of his king’s personal guard. And Pytheios, Rotting King of the Red Clan, only chose the deadliest warriors for that job.

  Titus came last. Black as an oil slick in the sky, a feature that made him damn near impossible to track at night, he quietly inserted himself in the group, ready for orders.

  “That was a pathetic run,” Finn snapped.

  Immediately all squabbling and goofing around ceased, and each dragon hovered in the sky at attention, only their wings in motion, keeping them aloft.

  “You should’ve put those drums out on the first pass. And Hall, I could see you outside the smoke again.”

  Drake shot Hall a clear “I told you the fuck so” look, but Hall at least knew better than to break ranks when Finn was addressing them.

  Training to handle wildland fires started by dragons—one of his team’s primary tasks—was a daily task, keeping them sharp. The entire point when they dealt with fires in dragon form was getting in and out unseen by humans, allowing them to pull the fire into a swirling vortex and absorb the flames into themselves before the situation escalated into an all-out disaster. Shifting into human form to battle a blaze was a last resort, but necessary if one of the human crews got too close.

  They’d train on that next.

  For now, they needed to work on being fucking invisible, even in daylight. Especially in daylight. The scales on their bellies reflected whatever was above them, helping them hide when flying at altitude, but he and his team worked close to the ground. They needed to do better.

  It was easier for white and blue dragons who could camouflage in the sky and clouds. Somewhat easier for Titus, who could hide in the darker smoke, and for Levi and Drake, who could blend with the reds and golds of the flames. Harder for Kanta and Hall, being green. But really, since Kanta’s forest green color at least blended with the tall pine trees they often dealt with, Hall had it the hardest. There was no way to make lime-green blend with anything.

  “Run it again. This time, I want the fire out on the first pass, and I don’t want to see any of you do it.”

  Finn tucked his wings in close to his body and arrowed toward the earth, slowing only slightly to level out just above the ground. He blew a torrent of blue-tipped flames over the barrels, bringing the blaze back to full force, then angled his wings to shoot back into the sky where he joined the team.

  “Go.”

  His team went to work. Finn watched closely. If he couldn’t see them with the sharp vision all dragon shifters possessed, humans would never notice them. That was the point.

  “Boss?” Kanta’s scratchy voice, like he’d inhaled too much smoke every day for years, broke into his head.

  “Can it wait?” Finn asked, still focused on the team below him.

  “No, boss. We have a heat signature.”

  Shit. “Dragon?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How big?”

  “Barely a blip on the screen, but it’s growing fast.”

  Kanta was manning their war room, which was filled with specialized equipment that monitored their territory, the Western half of North America, for any sign of dragon fire. Their mission was to put out the flames, punish the dragons responsible, and hide the evidence.

  Basically, they were the dragon version of enforcers. Police, judges, jury, and sometimes executioners, all rolled into one.

  Sounded easy on paper.

  In reality, keeping peace among dragon shifters felt like trying to herd geese with a helicopter.

  North America was one of several colonies over which the six clans of Europe and Asia—Blue, Red, Gold, Black, White, and Green—shared control. Unlike back home, the dragons in the colonies lived in mixed groups. Distance from their kings, sometimes-contradictory orders, and loyalties split between clan and the colony in which they now lived resulted in a shit show. Conflicts and rebellions were a constant.

  And where there were conflicts and rebellions, there was fire.

  “Where?” he asked Kanta.

  “Close. Really close. Apple Hill area just west of here. A winery. Looks like one of the structures, but still too small to tell.”

  Fuck. A dragon dared to set a fire that close to their headquarters? Worse, that area was populated. A structure fire put him in an awkward fucking position. Human crews that handled those types of fires would be sure to show. Finn needed to get his team in and out fast before the humans got involved.

  “Right. We’re on it. I’m sending Hall back to you.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Finn called to the men below him. “Boys. Put out those drums, we have a real fire to deal with. Hall, back with Kanta at headquarters. Everyone els
e, pick up your packs. Follow me.”

  Finn angled toward the ground and scooped up the gear he would need if he had to handle this in human form. Given the location and type of fire, that possibility was high. The others did the same.

  He filled them in on the way.

  “We’ll use the smoke to drop in, and then circle around, shift, and pretend to come from the parking lot.” Any humans on the scene would most likely be too panicked to notice that the firefighters who arrived did so on foot. They’d be too happy to have help. “I doubt we’ll have long before the structure guys get there. This one is going to be a huge pain in the ass.”

  So much easier to eliminate the flames when they didn’t have prying eyes watching their every move.

  “Boss,” Kanta’s voice came through, projecting to all of them now. “The fire appears to be coming from a barn, or similar structure, on the grounds.”

  Shit. If a human life was taken by this fire, that would make their jobs a thousand times harder.

  “You heard the man, boys,” Finn said. “Move your asses.”

  …

  The distinctive crackling of flames pulled Delaney out of a dark abyss of unconsciousness into a nightmare. With a slow blink, she tried to focus through stinging, watering eyes. Wooden beams overhead came into view, even as black smoke slunk along like a predator in the dark and crept into her lungs.

  She blinked again and turned her head. Sure enough, angry, weirdly black-tipped fire licked at the back of the barn in which she lay. Flames slithered up the wood walls to the roof high overhead like a thousand snakes, hissing and spitting as her body warmed from the heat.

  Oh God, not again.

  In her panic, Delaney made the mistake of gasping in a breath. Pain burst in her lungs, and she jerked upright, heaving and coughing as the heavy, heated smoke singed her from the inside.

  Way too many experiences with fire kicked in and Delaney forced lethargic limbs to function. She pushed to her knees and looked around, orienting herself. A vague light pierced the dark haze, like peering down a train tunnel.