Dragon Released (Reclaimed Dragons Book 1)

by Terry Bolryder

  Jerk.

  “Oh, fancy seeing you here,” he said nonchalantly.

  “I told you not to follow me.”

  He grinned, showing a hint of perfect white teeth behind his full lips. “I recall you saying you wanted me gone when you got back. So I left to do a little… shopping.”

  She grimaced, her fairly stellar patience being tested.

  “You’re still being a stalker.”

  “No, I’m not.” He turned back to the jars on the shelves next to him as he spoke, picking up one large glass jar easily with a big hand, hefting and appraising it boredly.

  “Yes, you are.” She felt a little like she was dealing with a toddler who was smart enough to say anything to keep himself out of trouble.

  “No. I’m shopping for…” He looked at the jar in his hands, brows furrowing for a moment as he read the name. “Sawyer-crat. After all, humans love this stuff, and I, a human like you, need it.”

  Jo tried to suppress her laugh at how poorly he’d said it, which only made Dallin’s face screw up more in consternation. But she was still angry.

  “That’s sauerkraut. And no, I think you’re lying.”

  In an instant, his face relaxed back to cool casualness. “Nope, you can’t prove it. After all, I happen to be an enjoyer of sauerkraut myself. I like my sauerkraut… extra fermented.” He frowned a bit, then took the jar and put it in his cart, which already had a few things in it for some reason. And then, while Jo watched, he put several more in as if to make his point.

  Even though he hadn’t even known how to say the name correctly.

  Jo didn’t know if she wanted to laugh hysterically or scream in annoyance.

  “What do I have to do to get rid of you?” Jo asked earnestly, foot tapping nervously on the ground.

  Dallin finally turned to face her fully, one hand in the pocket of his jeans, the other rested calmly on the handle of his cart. “Funny you should ask that. As I am not following you, you have no need to get rid of me. So all you need to do is just pretend I’m not here, and you can go on with your life like normal.”

  Jo got the impression that even if she told Dallin that being followed around by a big guy like him was the very opposite of normal, he wouldn’t get it.

  Maybe this was her life now, being followed by a huge hunk who insisted he wasn’t a stalker.

  A woman appeared at their side, breaking the quickly rising tension between her and Dallin, and politely asked, “Excuse me,” as she reached for something on the shelf between them.

  Jo, taking the opening, just sent Dallin one last glare, which Dallin responded to with the coolest shrug possible. As if to say, I know you’re watching, but I don’t give two shits.

  That was kind of Dallin in a nutshell, from what she’d experienced.

  Jo moved to leave, and when she looked over her shoulder, she noticed the woman from before was eagerly talking to Dallin, giggling and checking him out so hard it made the tiniest twinge of jealousy bite at Jo’s chest. Dallin, waylaid by the woman’s cart blocking his, just frowned irritably.

  Later, alligator, Jo thought to herself.

  A minute later, in the produce section, Jo watched with amusement as Dallin got cornered by another woman—this one with a kid in her cart—who was trying to appear as casual as possible while hitting on the frustrated male.

  Jo chuckled at the idea that the most threatening thing for Dallin at the supermarket would be other shoppers getting in his way because they were checking him out.

  But thinking about it only made her annoyed. Even a little angry, though it definitely wasn’t because she was jealous.

  No way.

  The more she watched other women perv on him, the more Jo realized she needed to just remove herself from the situation. So instead, she headed for a quiet corner of the market, parking her cart and pulling out her phone to take a couple photos to post on her social media.

  Normally, she loved her job. Loved always anticipating the next project, coming up with ideas to make delicious, visually appealing things for people to replicate at home or just enjoy watching being made.

  But it was difficult to focus on things like confectioners’ sugar and egg whites when there was the possibility that everything she knew to be real in this world could change in an instant.

  Of course, that was only if Dallin and that mysterious packet were telling the truth.

  Behind her, Jo heard the click of the emergency exit door to the side of her opening, and for a split second, she wondered why it hadn’t set off the store alarm. Then again, those things were often disabled because kids constantly triggered the alarm, right?

  Before she had a moment to turn and look, a hand covered her mouth, and she was yanked backward by someone much taller and stronger than her. Another figure grabbed her cart and pulled it with them, clattering heavily as she was dragged into an alley behind the store.

  Before she knew what was happening, she was pushed to the ground, the smell of dumpsters mingling with the afternoon heat. She looked up, knees smarting a bit from being pushed down, just as one of the figures threw her cart to the side, dumping its contents all over the dirty asphalt.

  The men—there were two of them—were clad in black leather jackets and wore dark shirts and jeans. They were both oddly tall, though not quite as tall as Dallin, and they appraised her with an odd, predatory curiosity.

  Only then did she notice the pitch black of their eyes, so dark the orbs didn’t even reflect light off of them as they watched her with cruel grins.

  “I told you I was right. Perfect timing. Her signal was getting stronger by the day,” one of the two men exclaimed excitedly.

  Both men had long faces with pointed, sharp features and exuded a sort of otherworldly aura as they watched her.

  Jo felt like she was looking at something that wasn’t quite human.

  It was the second time she’d felt that today.

  “Where’s your watchdog, beacon?” the meaner one said with a glare, coming closer to Jo with an ominous, outstretched hand. Her heart pounded with fear, all of her muscles clenching with the need to run or fight, though she could do neither.

  Suddenly, the door through which she’d been dragged flew open, so hard the metal creaked and banged and stayed stuck in an open position.

  But Jo didn’t have time to focus on that as a huge, raging figure appeared in the alley behind the two men.

  “Right here, you chaos sons of bitches,” Dallin exclaimed, arms out, hands in tight fists.

  Chaos? Beacon? These had just been strange words on a pamphlet not long ago. But right now, they seemed like very real things.

  The two men in black immediately turned their attention toward Dallin. But a moment later, she heard one of them scoff, a dark chuckle that made her skin crawl.

  “A dragon? That’s all?” The disdain in the dark, ethereal-looking men’s voices was confusing to Jo, given that Dallin looked like he was about to rip a train in half or something.

  “Just go back to your master, little pet dra—”

  In a motion that was quicker than her eyes could even fully follow, Dallin’s fist rocketed forward with a punch into the guy’s jaw, stopping him midsentence and sending him flying thirty feet backward into the alley. He would’ve certainly gone farther had he not been stopped by a brick wall at the end. She could hear the sound of stone cracking from the impact, though it might have been something else breaking too.

  She could see the teal of Dallin’s eyes glinting in the sun as he turned to the stunned man on his left that clearly hadn’t anticipated what had just happened a second ago.

  Jo hadn’t anticipated it either, to be fair.

  It was like she was on the set of some movie. Only it was all real.

  The man in the leather jacket raised his hands defensively, but they did nothing to protect him from Dallin’s leg as he caught the man in the side with a powerful kick that made the air whoosh around them. Like a person launched from a freaki
ng cannon, the guy flew sideways, tumbling like a rag doll across the empty back alley before he rolled to a stop not far from his friend.

  Dallin sent Jo a quick glance, the rage in his gaze softening for the barest hint of a moment before he turned toward the men down the alley. One was slowly extracting himself from the wall while the other just groaned.

  How was either of them still moving after that?

  Jo did a quick once-over, making sure she wasn’t hurt or even dead, given what was going on, before pulling out her phone to call 9-1-1 as she stood up. After all, she’d nearly been kidnapped. At least she thought so.

  A sudden blast of green light and wind and heat filled the alley, making Jo drop her phone from the impact of it, rattling her slightly. But when she looked toward the direction of the light, all she saw was Dallin coming toward her, brows turned down in harsh slashes on his forehead.

  And behind him, there was nothing but a faint green glow that dissipated into the empty alley.

  It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that whatever had happened, the men were gone now. For good, if her intuition was right.

  But who were they? Why had they been here? What was going on?”

  “I—” Jo opened her mouth to say something, but Dallin reached her in the same moment.

  And to her utter surprise, he pulled her into his embrace, huge arms encircling her closely.

  “Shh, you’re safe now,” he said, his voice low and harsh but oddly soothing. A sound she didn’t even know she needed until she’d heard it.

  And in spite of her racing thoughts, Jo just held him too, letting her pounding heart relax.

  She didn’t have the slightest clue what was going to happen.

  But she knew the world as she understood it would never be the same now that Dallin was in it.

  5

  His heart was beating like it was going to jump out of his chest.

  He’d never felt like this before, not in his entire life.

  How dare those bastards come near Johanna? Near what was his to protect. His.

  Possessiveness like nothing else was still surging through his veins.

  And with that, the strange desire to kiss her. To claim her as well. He didn’t have a word for it except the thought WANT in his head on repeat like a broken record.

  Was this what it felt like to find the one?

  No, it couldn’t be. He just wanted his collar off. That was it. He’d just been scared something might have happened, ruining his chances at freedom.

  “Um, are you okay?” Jo asked, her light voice muffled against his chest.

  He let go, against his own body’s desire to keep holding, and looked Jo over. “Don’t worry about me. Are you hurt?” The thought that they might have harmed even a single hair on her head made Dallin wish he could bring the two chaos fairies back to life so he could obliterate them a second time.

  Jo, thankfully, shook her head. “No. A bit shocked but fine.”

  “Good.” With the two men gone, the stink of chaos was dissipating quickly, meaning there weren’t others.

  Probably just a couple of low chaos fae hoping to score a beacon for themselves.

  He grimaced at how they’d practically laughed in his face for being a dragon. In the world of fae, he was still a lowlife, a servant.

  So, in Dallin’s opinion, any fairy—chaos or otherwise—that underestimated him deserved what they got.

  “I just… What just happened exactly?” Jo asked, brown eyes still wide and full of shock.

  Perhaps he didn’t blame her for that. After all, her world was a lot bigger than she thought it was.

  Maybe he would give her a break for a minute.

  “How about we talk somewhere that isn’t a back alley?” he asked, standing near Jo, unable to completely calm the crazy-protective monster in the back of his mind.

  “Okay,” she said, looking slightly resigned. It wasn’t until she saw her cart, its contents overturned and strewn across the dank ground, that she let out a groan. “Aw, man. I needed this stuff.”

  Dallin, knowing there wasn’t likely danger but wanting to get the hell out of there before they attracted more, came up beside her. “I have what you need in my cart just inside there.” He pointed to the stuck-ajar exit.

  Every time she got something, he’d picked one up too, assuming that if it was something she needed, he’d get another one for her just in case.

  “You do?” she asked, surprised. “But what about these things? I can’t just leave it here.”

  Dallin stood a little closer, not caring if he was crowding her a bit, because only the knowledge that she was safe and by his side was able to calm his berserk senses. “It’s not safe here.”

  She still frowned at her lost supplies.

  “I’ll just get two of everything at the checkout so we can still pay for your things, and we’ll tell them on our way out about the mess here so someone can take care of it,” he said.

  “You’d do that?” she asked, clearly too moral for her own good.

  “Yes. So let’s just hurry and go,” he said more firmly this time, and she followed as he led them both inside.

  They quickly checked out, doing as he’d promised, and Jo stayed close as he loaded the things into her car and got into the passenger seat next to her.

  Once they were on the road and headed back toward Jo’s house, Dallin finally took a breath of relief. But he still couldn’t shake how desperately he wanted—needed—Jo to be safe. How, for even the split second of danger she’d been in, it had felt like his whole world could crumble beneath his feet.

  But he was just doing his job. He just wanted his freedom back, nothing more, nothing less.

  “So what exactly happened back there?” Jo asked, hands clenching the steering wheel.

  Dallin just looked over at Jo, the top of his head brushing the roof of her car, and she glanced at him with guarded curiosity.

  “Do you want the truth, or do you want me to keep pretending you live a normal life with normal problems?”

  For a moment, Jo was quiet, lips pressing together slightly as she thought.

  “So it wasn’t just special effects or something?”

  Dallin had to grin a little when they pulled into her driveway just then, her house only a short distance from the market.

  “Can I at least come inside and explain properly?” Dallin asked, motioning toward the cozy-looking abode.

  She gave him a resolute look. She was ready to face the truth, finally. “Okay, you can come in and tell me everything I saw wasn’t a dream. But no funny business.” She jabbed a finger in his direction.

  “If by funny business, you mean me trying to be funny, I think you’d be met with disappointment anyway.” He shrugged. “My friends have called me a lot of things. Funny isn’t one of them.”

  She cocked her head to the side slightly. “You have friends? What do they call you?”

  “Menacing. Apathetic. Dangerous,” he replied, enjoying the way she shivered whenever he looked at her a certain way.

  It was her turn to grin slightly, hands relaxing on the steering wheel for the first time since they’d gotten in.

  “You really aren’t human, are you?”

  The air hung heavy around them, perhaps the sheer proximity of being near someone so pretty as her making him warmer.

  “No,” he said flatly. “But I’ll tell you more once you let me inside.”

  She hit a button, and the garage door pulled upward in front of them, allowing her to pull forward into the carport. And as he pulled the groceries from her trunk, Dallin shook his head in dark amusement.

  As a hybrid dragon, he was a lot of things.

  Human wasn’t one of them.

  Somehow, Jo wasn’t sure if watching the towering man walk into her kitchen, carrying all of the grocery bags in one hand, made the whole thing feel more normal or more weird than she anticipated.

  And what did he mean “dangerous?”

  Aft
er being helped twice in one day, she certainly didn’t feel any threat from Dallin, though her heart was still racing a bit from what had happened at the store.

  That and anticipation of what she was going to hear when he told her more of the truth.

  Across the room, Puggles ruffed excitedly and toddled over to the kitchen, snorting as he craned his neck to look up at Dallin.

  Dallin, upon seeing her little dog, seemed to tense. And if she wasn’t crazy, he seemed to be growling back as he frowned downward. But Puggles, friendly to a fault, just put his front paws on Dallin’s leg, eager for cuddles.

  “Sorry, he’s a snuggle bug, this one,” she said, picking up Puggles into her arms. Dallin appraised the dog oddly cautiously for a moment, as if deciding if he actually was a threat or not. “Not a dog fan, huh?”

  “It’s not that. I… may have spent a considerable amount of time living as a house cat.” His expression gradually relaxed. “As such, my relationship with dogs is tenuous at best.”

  Jo didn’t even know what to make of that information. There most certainly was a story there, but she had too many other questions that needed answering right now.

  “I can always put him in his room for a minute if he makes you nervous.”

  Dallin slanted a glance at her as if to deny her preposterous notion, then reached a hand to scratch Puggles’ forehead.

  “No need. This dog is… acceptable,” he said, sounding conflicted initially but grinning slightly as her dog licked eagerly at his hand.

  After a moment more, she put the dog down, and Dallin brought the groceries in and placed them on the counter. After some bumping as they navigated the kitchen around each other, everything was put away, and Jo moved to the living room, plopping herself on the couch and sighing in relief.

  Where had the time gone?

  Oh yeah, a giant man-beast plopped into her life.

  Nearby, Dallin put his hands on his hips, taking in her living room, all of which seemed smaller next to him.