She yawned and stretched her hands above her head. She felt the shell pull at her skin where they were fused together. She reached down to rub the spot.
Beneath her hand, the egg cracked.
Emily froze. She felt the shell under her fingertips split apart. Her breath held. The babe inside rammed her left side. She rolled out of bed, staggering to her feet.
Alarm jolted through her. “Blake!”
She glanced toward the open window. His jeans still crumpled at the side of the bed where he left them the night before. Their bed empty, while some men went commando, her man went dragon in the morning. With the sun on the rise, she couldn’t wait for his return.
She hissed. A slow long breath releasing through her lips as the baby pinched her again. She pulled on one of Blake’s discarded shirts and slipped on her sandals.
She hoped Bogdan hadn’t gone to bed and could find Blake.
Her heart thundering in her chest with excitement, she made it to the top of the stairs. Hearing footsteps down below, she spotted Naomi. “Thank goodness you are here!” Emily waddled her way down the stairs. “The egg, it’s cracked!”
Naomi rushed up the stairs to meet her. “Are you sure?”
Emily lifted the shirt to show her. She held onto the railing while the other woman ran her hands over the egg, feeling for the crack. Naomi’s hands paused on Emily’s left side. She traced the hairline crack on the egg. Without looking up she asked, “Where are the others?”
Emily’s heart thrummed in her chest. “They’ve all gone out.”
Naomi looked at her, something sparked in the dragoness’s eyes. “You must come with me.” She took Emily by the elbow helping her continue down the stairs.
“What about Blake?” Emily didn’t like the way Naomi tugged on her to take the stairs faster.
Naomi shook her head. “This is female business. The males will come later.”
Emily glanced back up the stairs, “Shouldn’t we be going back upstairs?”
Naomi didn’t say anything. Her eyes darkened to an amber hue. Emily paused at the bottom of the stairs. Her hand immediately reaching for the underside of the egg as another crack split the shell. “I’m not sure I’m prepared for this. Not yet.”
“I’ve been preparing for this fiu’s arrival long before you came along.” Naomi’s fingers bit into Emily’s arm. She tried pulling her arm free, but something feral in Naomi’s eyes stopped her. “Come along, quickly.”
“Where are we going?”
“My lair.”
“Please tell me you’re joking.”
“You were expecting a hospital?”
Emily knew where babies were born. She also knew how baby dragons hatched. She’d watched one hatch in her father’s hatchery when she was younger. Keeping the baby warm and wrapped in its wings kept them content, secure. This, however, wasn’t the hatchery. Turning up the heat in their bedchamber might not provide enough warmth for a dragon fiu.
Their bedchamber, when had she started to accept this place as hers?
She cradled the egg, feeling another crack branching off the first beneath her hand. She understood Naomi’s haste to get to her lair. Instead of heading for the kitchen, Naomi directed her towards the front door. She didn’t like not letting Blake know where she was or that his fiu was hatching. He had a right to be there. As Blake kept reminding her, the old ways were not their ways. They defied most of them already, so why not this one?
“We need to leave him a note.” Emily dug her bare heels down on the wood polished floor.
“No. Let’s go.”
“I don’t have proper shoes on.”
Naomi’s eyes narrowed on her. Their slits sharp-like, deadly. “I will fly you there.”
“I’m not flying with you.” Emily whirled around and ran down the hall. Naomi rushed behind her, a thousand sharp knifes stabbed her scalp jerking her back. “BLAKE!”
Emily struggled against Naomi, she felt the dragoness shifting against her back, dragging her down the hall. Emily twisted, Naomi’s dragon claws piercing into her flesh. With every twist, the egg cracked. Emily cried out again, she grabbed for the doorway. Naomi wrapped a scaled arm around her. She kicked, lashing back at the dragoness, her sandals flying off her feet.
Wing beaten winds swirled around her and to Emily’s dismay her feet lifted from the stone path. In the air, the dragoness shifted Emily in her hold. Her head, free to look up, Emily tried to swing her arm to grab a scale.
Higher and higher the land beneath her became smaller. Emily squeezed her eyes closed. She hated this part of flying. Her hand became damp holding onto the egg. Keep it together, Emily. Keep it together.
She heard the cry of a bird veering out of the dragoness’s way. Wind whipped back her hair and she turned her head to catch her breath. With the dragoness’s arm wrapped beneath her arms, it became difficult to keep her hands over the egg. A piece of the shell fell away; it took all that she was to keep it together.
Basking in the hot morning sun, Blake jerked back as if he’d been struck by an invisible lance.
Emily! He heard her cry out his name. Suddenly, fear washed over him. Spreading his wings, he dived from his position close to the sun, breaking through the clouds. His heart seized. He heard her call again. Something was wrong. Very. Very. Wrong.
As he cleared the fog of the clouds, he spotted the brown and amber-scaled dragon soaring towards the mountains. He veered in its direction. At first glance, he recognized Naomi.
Then his vision narrowed in on her catch. When the dragoness tilted her amber gleaming wings, his heart skipped a beat. Emily.
A sickening feeling oozed down his spine and into his tail.
He flew after them.
Chapter Seventeen
Emily had been in a dragon’s lair a time or two, but never a cave in the mountains. Never one such as this. Inside the mouth of the cave, smooth stone with water rippling down and flowing down a French drain hid what lie deeper inside. Naomi released her.
Emily watched as Naomi bowed her head, brought in her wings to cocoon her while the rest of her body transformed back into its human shape. Lastly, her wings shrunk, pulling in behind her shoulders until they disappeared.
Naked as the day she was born, Naomi grabbed Emily’s arm. “This way.”
Deeper inside the cave, the entrance widened and opened to a large room. The walls and floor were smooth with blended ores. Silver, Gold, Bronze, like marble. A green and amber-scaled dragon lay curled up in the far corner, and Emily knew that was Garth. His breathing steady, his eyes closed. She noticed the deep gash along his curved neck and the missing scales on his shoulder.
On the other side, Naomi had made a nest of feathers, scales, and furs. To a human, it appeared like a king-sized bed. Emily watched as the dragoness pulled a long skirt and peasant blouse on from a stack of clothes by the nest.
Emily sucked in her breath and winced. A loud crack, the sound of grumbling, came from her stomach. She looked down as a large piece of the egg fell from beneath her shirt. Falling to her knees, Emily covered her hands over the hole at the bottom side of the egg.
Naomi returned to her side, pushing away her hand. She shoved up the shirt. “It’s coming.”
Emily glanced over to the dragon, Garth’s eyes remained closed. Naomi ran her hands all over the egg. She pressed herself close to Emily and Emily tried to lean away.
“Don’t, it needs to catch its mother’s scent to bond.”
With the next intense bump from the baby inside, Emily tried to push Naomi’s hands away. A dark and dangerous gleam glinted in the dragoness’s eyes. Inside, Emily seethed. She jerked to the side and the other woman grabbed her and pulled her down, flat on her back. She sat on Emily’s legs, their hands trying to keep the other from grabbing the broken shell.
Emily cried out as the shell pulled away, stinging and pulling at her flesh as another chuck of the shell fell away. She tried wiggling the other woman off her. When Naomi hesitated,
about to let go, Emily grabbed her arm to keep her from touching the shell. Naomi yanked hard, stronger then Emily. Then reached back and punched Emily.
A thousand needles burst across her face. Emily blinked, but her face slammed to the side against the heated floor. Naomi grinned as Emily’s limbs went limp and she couldn’t fight the dizziness swirling around inside her head.
She felt the little one inside giving one final head butting ram against her before it poked its golden snout through. Emily watched in a daze as Naomi grabbed a chunk of shell and broke it away. She pulled the little dragon from within. Slick with albumin, Naomi pulled the baby dragon close to her bosom. No bigger than a human infant, she wrapped its small translucent wings around it.
Emily held out her arms but Naomi got to her feet, turning her back on Emily. “She’s mine.”
From within Naomi’s arms, the little dragon cried. Naomi walked over, close to Garth, rocking the fiu, but its cries grew louder.
Emily pushed herself back up on her feet. Her face throbbed where Naomi punched her. She staggered toward the fiu. “It’s a girl? Please, you must give her to me. She needs me.”
Emily could feel her breast aching, throbbing painfully with the fiu’s cries.
Naomi turned, facing her with the fiu screeching in her arms. “Your services are no longer needed. Keeper. We dragons are quite capable of caring for what is ours.”
“I can feed her.”
“As can I.” Naomi reached into her blouse pulling forward a limp breast, pressing the dragon to it, but the babe’s cries heightened as it turned its head away again and again.
“She doesn’t belong to you.”
“Nor you!” Naomi’s nostrils flared. “You’re a human. Even if a bit of dragon blood flows in your veins, you are not worthy of Melsunia’s fiu.”
Emily’s hands shook. Albumin dripped from inside the egg down her legs. With every high pieced cry of the dragon baby, an urgency she never felt before strummed through her like an electric shock. She stalked over as Naomi placed the babe against Garth’s resting body, in the seam of his elbow.
“Give. Me. Back. My. Baby!”
Crying, screaming, the babe’s scales turned from gold to amber-tipped.
Naomi extended her claws from her hand. “She’s mine! I’m the one who has watched over her all these years. I’m the one who has been preparing for her arrival. Me. She’s mine. I have waited for too long for a mere human to take this away from me.”
A cold chill swept through Emily. She glanced over at the baby, and Garth’s eye opened. She blinked, his eye closed. Naomi had gone mad. It glazed her eyes with desperation. Emily dashed for the baby, but Naomi swiped her claws, catching Emily across the arm.
Emily twisted away, but Naomi stabbed her with her other clawed hand. Remnants of the shell broke away from her. Grateful it was still attached, or Naomi’s sharp claws would have punctured her more than a scratch.
“What about Blake? This is his fiu? You and Garth can have your own.” Emily gripped her arm, panting for breaths between the pain. She’d made it half way to the screaming babe. Garth’s eyes open, fixed on Naomi. Sounds of her blood pounding, the fiu screaming, echoed in her ears.
“Blake bestowed the care of the fiu to Garth and I a long time ago. Too busy being the rock star to tend to her himself. It’s a shame the poor dear got so confused that it had to tear and claw its way out.” Naomi moved closer to Emily. “Through you.”
Emily lifted her chin. Garth blinked. Behind Naomi, her dragon mate shifted his head.
For a moment, Emily felt sad for the other woman. How long had she tried to conceive a child of her own? What drove someone to such lengths to steal another’s baby? “At least let me feed her, calm her down. What will Garth think when he wakes?”
Naomi didn’t look back. Her eyes narrowed on Emily. “It does not matter. In the time he wakes, I will have consoled Blake after losing another mate, and since our bond has never been strong, he shall release me and I will take my place as the mother of the last sun dragon of our kind.”
“Over my dead body,” Emily lunged for the baby.
As Naomi sprang for her, Garth whipped his tail out, slamming Naomi against the wall. Four large spikes elongated from the tip, piercing through Naomi. Her eyes widened. Tears trickled down her face, and then she went limp.
A vibrating roar echoed in the cave as a large golden dragon emerged into the lair.
Chapter Eighteen
Blake picked up the screaming baby dragon. Squirming in his hold, he moved swiftly to place the little one into Emily’s arms. As soon as his mate embraced the squalling bundle, he grinned. An instant in Emily’s arm and his daughter transformed to her human shape. Greedily, she latched onto Emily’s breast. Suckling and gulping loudly. He chuckled.
Big gold eyes stared up at Emily.
Blake slid in the bed beside her. Only days ago, he’d carried them both out of Garth and Naomi’s mountain dwelling, leaving Naomi’s lifeless body behind for Garth to tend. Even now, his blood ran cold thinking of how Naomi had planned to eliminate Emily in order to get to his fiu.
If only he had known all this time how Naomi had plotted to claim his child as her own. He wrapped his arm around Emily’s shoulders, pulling her against him.
In all the years of waiting, mourning, Garth had never mentioned Naomi’s inability to conceive. Grief tugged at him. Not for Emily coming along, the evil in Naomi’s heart may not have been known to them. Not until too late.
He tucked back a strand of her hair, leaning in to inhale her sensual scent. Since shedding the rest of the egg shell, he couldn’t refrain his hands from exploring this new part of her.
He thanked Melsunia for his daughter, Amelia. But he thanked Freya, for the blessing of his true mate.
With his fiu hatched, Olaus could no longer threaten judgment for theft. They would, however, still need to stand before the counsel. He could handle the dragons.
“Did Sigurd say when Father would arrive?” Emily asked.
He continued to brush his fingers across the top of her bared breast. “We still have time for a nap.”
Her eyes sparked at his suggestion. Watching her feeding his baby pricked him with jealously.
“And when neither one of us sleeps?”
He let his finger dip lower to her un-suckled breast. “I’ll put you to bed.”
“Now I know where she gets her impatience from.”
Blake chuckled. “Like father like daughter.”
“You’re not disappointed it’s a girl?”
Blake slid in the bed beside her. “I’m curious how you knew.”
“I’m the daughter of an oologist, remember?”
He reached over, allowing his daughter to grip his finger. That jealous pang replaced with pride and love for his child, for this woman who claimed them both. “And to think you tried to steal my egg.”
“Do you think Naomi was Margaret’s buyer?”
“If not, we’ll soon find out.” Blake relieved Emily of the infant. He laid the girl, no more than seven or eight pounds, against his shoulder and patted her back. Emily slipped her deflated breast back in her bra and pulled out the other swollen one.
Amelia burped against him. He looked down and sighed, the little thing had shifted back into a shimmering gold dragon. Her wings limp on her back. “I think you have spoiled her.”
“May I have her back?” Emily reached for her. He turned the baby and laid the little dragon in Emily’s arms. After a moment, the dragon infant once more became a human infant.
“She’ll learn to control the shift when she’s older. Then she’ll teach all her brothers.”
Emily looked at him, bewildered. “Brothers?”
“You’re expecting to have more girls?” He leaned over and kissed her neck.
He felt her flush. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“And what is that?”
He rubbed her shoulder. Rubbed her arm. “You’re wondering how so
on we can take that nap.”
Emily laughed, softly. A sound he would never get tired of hearing.
In her arms, Amelia’s eyes drooped, her sucking slowed, stopped, slowed. Then a few minutes later, she slept with her mouth open. Blake took the babe, laid her back in her bassinet a few feet from the bed. Emily tip toed up behind him, wrapping her arms around him. Peering around him to the golden-haired wonder he called his daughter.
She slipped her hands into his shirt, splaying her fingers across his taunt abs. “Is that all you can think of?”
“When you are bond to mate such as I, is there anything else to think of?” he asked.
Emily turned him, lifting her face to gaze up at him. “What if my father takes me back? Our family debt hasn’t been paid.”
He pressed his fingers to her lips. “I will always come for you. We are one now. They cannot separate us.” He took her wrist, kissed the place where his fire had left his brand burnt into her flesh like a golden tattoo. “If there is a debt then it has become mine as well.”
He led her away from the bassinet, grabbing her by the hips pulling her in to feel his need for her. “How did you know where Naomi had taken me?”
“I heard you call for me.”
“You were so far away,” she said, breathless. His fingers played with the hem of her shirt.
“As our bond grows stronger, you’ll hear me, too.”
“Can hear me, now?”
Oh, come for me my dragon.
“That, my love, you can always count on.” He led her from their bedchamber, hoping Sigurd hadn’t remembered to take the short route home.
THE END
Keep reading for a sneak peek at the next book in my Dragons of Giresun series, Her Dragon’s Treasure.
About Suzanne Roslyn
Suzanne is the author of hot paranormal shifter romance, a tamer of dragons, and collector of unicorns.
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